New Software Calculates Lightning Rocket Trajectory

19th Feb 2020

Our propulsion team have been developing new software that will track trajectories for our rockets. It has been developed in FORTRAN. We are posting a demonstration image from a rocket with the following characteristics. It is an early snapshot but it is important to show our work and research. The info below is for a hypothetical vehicle.

The picture below is the trajectory of a 3 stage drop/air launch 350 km East off the Gold coast using Solid Fuel.

Drop is at 10,000 m.  Mission is to a Geostationary Transfer Orbit (GTO). 

We would track over Mexico City and Directly over Cape Canaveral in Florida. Our developer says:

LIGHTNING: Improved Trajectory attached:

Figures are for a hypothetical vehicle not for the actual design vehicle.

Mission: GTO

Launch Azimuth: 90.00 deg

                     Long      Lat     Alt (m)  Pitch(deg) 

Launch         :    157.000  -28.000  00010000   90.000

Stage 1 Burnout:    159.032  -27.985  00115295   11.487

Stage 2 Burnout:    167.487  -27.541  00189682    2.530

Stage 3 Burnout:   -173.978  -24.540  00201448   -9.990

S3 Burnout

Semi-Major Axis      =  24370.85 km

Perigee height       =    199.54 km

Apogee radius        =  42164.02 km

Eccentricity         =      0.73

Argument of Perigee  =      1.61 deg

True Anomaly         =      6.25 deg

Down Range Angle     =     27.79 deg

We will post more on this later, but this is an early test run. More soon