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I was wondering where I can learn how to calculate the trajectory of present day launch vehicles. I've stumbled upon this book, called Equations of powered rocket ascent and orbit trajectory.

Publication:
Final Report Naval Research Lab., Washington, DC. Communication Sciences Div.
Publication Date: May 1979

But I'm hesitant to use this reference as it is circa 1979 and in forty years certainly some things have changed.

Would major changes since this work was written reduce its applicability? If so, in what ways would it still likely be timely and applicable, and in what ways might current launch vehicle flight have aspects that would need more recent texts to be covered?

Also, maybe there are easier and better ways to learn about calculating rocket flight trajectory?

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    $\begingroup$ I've adjusted the wording so that the question no longer subject to answer-blocking close voting. $\endgroup$
    – uhoh
    Nov 19, 2020 at 23:57

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I would say it is a good reference. It is not a book, but rather a 33 page paper (one page is distribution page so no real information). I got a copy of the pdf from dtic.mil. A quick search shows the url is https://apps.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a069296.pdf but dtic is down right now.

Semanticscholar.org reproduces the figure and gives the url above, https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Equations-of-Powered-Rocket-Ascent-and-Orbit-H./73ef88e3a7e678c9bd7585bafc3da54ca6ec7acd

Have fun with the project, and get back to us if you can share.

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    $\begingroup$ I've updated the wording of the question so that it wouldn't be closed for "This question is likely to be answered with opinions rather than facts and citations. It should be updated so it will lead to fact-based answers." There were two close votes already. I see that your first sentence is an unsupported opinion; if you can add a sentence or two explaining why you think so, that would be great! $\endgroup$
    – uhoh
    Nov 20, 2020 at 0:00
  • $\begingroup$ Thanks for your answer! Dtic is still down, but hope it'll get recovered soon. Anyway, I'm extremely grateful, have a nice day :) $\endgroup$
    – mad.redhead
    Nov 20, 2020 at 6:13

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