Launch Window Calculator is a static web application for calculating the optimal launch time for spacecraft going to non-equatorial orbits. The calculations are performed by a JavaScript program executed on the user’s machine and the user-interface is created using HTML and the mini.css framework.
In a nutshell the optimal launch window occurs when the launch site is on the target orbit's plane. This program calculates these times by accounting for the Earth's rotation and nodal precession. The calculations are very accurate, however actual launches will happen a couple minutes before the calculated launch times, because not even rockets can accelerate to orbital speeds instantaneously. To learn more about the physics behind launch times and how I made this website, please take a look at the documentation.
I originally created this website as a hobby project in 2017, to put the little programming and physics skills I had to work. Since then I have been continuously fixing, optimizing and adding new features to it, and also learning a lot by doing so.
Stylesheets from
mini.css
Icons from
Font Awesome