OpenRocket was originally written as the Master's thesis of Sampo Niskanen at Helsinki University of Technology. This thesis is being extended and updated as the OpenRocket technical documentation. Below is the latest technical documentation and the original Master's thesis.
OpenRocket is an free, fully featured model rocket simulator that allows you to design and simulate your rockets before actually building and flying them.
The main features include:
- Six-degree-of-freedom flight simulation
- Automatic design optimization
- Realtime simulated altitude, velocity and acceleration display
- Staging and clustering support
- Cross-platform (Java-based)
OpenRocket is an Open Source project licensed under the
GNU GPL. This means that the software is free to use for whatever purposes, and the source code is also available for studying and extending.
Downloads OpenRocket
25.8.2011: Version 1.1.8 is
released!
This release contains bug fixes to the optimization methods. It also contains a workaround to a JRE bug that prevents running OpenRocket on some builds of Java 7.
The web pages have also been somewhat updated and Boris du Reau has created
a separate site for coordinating the localization efforts for OpenRocket.
12.8.2011: Version 1.1.7 is
released!
This release includes automatic rocket design optimization support (
Analyze →
Rocket optimization). You can optimize any amount of rocket parameters for apogee altitude, maximum velocity or a number of different values.
While the automatic optimization is a powerful tool, it is very easy to optimize against particulars of the simulation methods, instead of true physical phenomena. Always keep common sense at hand and take the results with a grain of salt.
22.7.2011: Version 1.1.6 is
released!
This release includes initial localization support and translations to French, German and Spanish. This is thanks to the great work of Boris du Reau, and the teams from Tripoli France, Tripoli Spain and ERIG e.V. If you prefer to use some other language than the system default, you can select the language on the "Options" tab of the preferences dialog.
The release also includes design scaling support and numerous bug fixes.
10.6.2011: Version 1.1.5 is
released!
This release includes updates to the printing system which fixes printing on Windows.
5.3.2011: Version 1.1.4 is
released!
This release includes initial printing support, thanks to Doug Pedrick. Printing still has a few issues on some platforms. Various bugs have also been fixed.
6.10.2010: Version 1.1.3 is
released!
This release includes support for moving and copying components in the component tree using drag-and-drop. Use normal DnD for moving, and control-drag for copy. This release also fixes a severe bug in the undo system.
7.9.2010: A bug-fix version 1.1.2 is
released!
This release fixes a severe bug in 1.1.1 that prevented adding stages to rocket designs. Users are recommended to upgrade.
3.9.2010: Version 1.1.1 is
released!
For this release a major part of the simulator code has been rewritten for better flexibility in future development. It also includes a vastly improved thrust curve selection dialog, the possibility to loading user-defined thrust curves and better startup times than previous releases.
Simulation listeners written for older versions of OpenRocket are not compatible with this release.
21.3.2010: Version 1.1.0 is
released!
This release includes the first support for loading RockSim rocket design files (.RKT), thanks to contributions by Doug Pedrick. It's also the kick-off of the 1.1 development branch of OpenRocket.
10.3.2010: Version 1.0.0 is
released!
This release includes several hundred new thrustcurves from
thrustcurve.org and some bug fixes. It is also a stable milestone, after which development on larger features will be started in a 1.1 branch. Look out for it! :-)
17.2.2010: Version 0.9.6 is
released!
This release updates the aerodynamic calculation methods to be more in line with the Barrowman method and enhances the simulation time step selection, in addition to fixing numerous bugs.
28.11.2009: Version 0.9.5 is
released!
This release
fixes a serious bug in 0.9.4 that prevented adding a tube coupler and centering ring to the same body tube, in addition to a few smaller additions. Users of 0.9.4 should upgrade immediately!
24.11.2009: Version 0.9.4 is
released!
This version adds support for through-the-wall fin tabs, attaching components to coupler tubes, material editing, automatic update checking, in addition to fixing numerous bugs.
1.9.2009: Version 0.9.3 is
released!
This version includes lots of bug fixes and new features including data exporting, showing flight events in plots, example rocket designs, splitting clustered inner tubes and automated bug reporting.
13.7.2009: Version 0.9.2 is
released!
This version includes
bug fixes for imperial unit conversions and UI improvements for motor selection.
All users of imperial units should upgrade!
9.6.2009: The
Master's thesis for which OpenRocket was written for is now available!
At the same time version 0.9.1 was
released. This release fixes various file handling bugs and adds small UI enhancements.
24.5.2009: First version 0.9.0
released!