Why do missiles have fins, while modern space rockets don’t?
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Aircraft are drifty, they don’t magically fly in the direction they’re pointing. The better your wings the better you can fly in the direction you’re pointing instead of flying sideways.
This isn’t such a big deal for rockets since they don’t make sharp turns, so the body of the rocket is far more than adequate for this purpose, they just need to keep themselves pointing straight up.
A missile without fins would just point straight at it’s target but wouldn’t be able to curve it’s flight path in time. Thanks to it’s wings it can pull 30G turns, compared to the 8-9G turns a fighter jet can.
The fins are also articulated, so they don’t just help it fly in the direction it’s pointing but also change the direction in which it is pointing.
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