LaunchWin

LaunchWin is a dedicated software for calculating Orbital Launch-Window Opportunities (LWO) and simulating orbit and launch pad configuration and orientation.

An excellent tool for space companies, consultants, researchers, lecturers and students of aerospace engineering.

The source code of this software is available for sale. Please contact us for more information.

The appraisal valuation is independently performed by Eqvista.

Main Graphical User Interface

The software receives orbital elements, local sidereal time, and launch pad's location and generates the following outputs:

Analysis
Orbit simulation
3D launch-window animation
2D ground-track animation

Analysis report

In the analysis section, a brief summary of launch windows are calculated and displayed in PDF format. A sample run output of our example is shown below:

Possible launch-window opportunities:

Since the latitude of the launch pad is less than the inclination of the orbit, there are two launch-window possibilities: The ascending node launch-window opportunity is at 9:11:33. The descending node launch-window opportunity is at 18:43:50.

The current Local Sidereal Time (LST) is 22:52:3, hence you have missed the descending node launch-window opportunity. The first next opportunity will be at 9:11:33 i.e., 10 hours, 15 minutes, 34 seconds later.

The direction of this launch (azimuth) is 34.6768 deg., measured from true north.

Orbit simulation

The following 3D plots figures depict the orbit around the globe and its ground-track. Notice that the location of the launch pad is shown with reference to vernal point and according to current LST:

2D plot of the ground track for an ascending node launch-window opportunity.

2D plot of the ground-track for a descending node launch-window opportunity.

3D launch-window animation

The LWO Simulator provides 3D animation to visualize the launch-window opportunities. The Current Local Sidereal Time (Current LST) at any instant is shown in the Time display box which is calculated with reference to the time entered in the Primary GUI.

Upcoming LWO indicates the next node and shows if the rocket is going to be launched towards ascending node or descending node. If we miss this launch, the next available LW will be a few hours later but the azimuth will be 180-32=148 degrees measured from true north.

2D ground-track animation

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