Wherein we attempt to provide the math necessary to simulate the launch of a rocket from ground level into Earth orbit.
This page originally compiled Feb 2007 by TFR
What this is...
A great deal of information on this subject already exists on the web, and in dozens of available textbooks. Why another one? Well, if one desires to try to work out the details of, for instance, the Apollo 11 flight to the Moon of July, 1969, one must consult a space hardware site for details of the Saturn V rocket, a physics site for rocket motion, a celestial mechanics site for orbital math, and many different sites to work out the details of what happens in passing through the atmosphere on the way to orbit. At this writing, there is not one known textbook which covers all of these subjects. This site will attempt to bring some of that together in one place, giving the reader a working background, with real, worked examples. The one exception will be space hardware, that is, technical details of the rockets, missiles, and spacecraft of the world's public and private space programs. Many excellent websites already cover the subject in great detail, and we will not go deeply into it here.
We will attempt to avoid tedious derivations and higher math here, unless these are uncomplicated and interesting. If the reader is so inclined, we have included a bibliography for further study.
The pages progress in a definite order, as follows: