Fundamentals of Astrodynamics: Second Edition

When the United States Air Force Academy began teaching astrodynamics to undergraduates majoring in astronautics or aerospace engineering, it found that the traditional approach to the subject was well over 100 years old.An entirely new text had to be evolved, geared to the use of high speed digital computers and actual current practice in the industry.Over the years the new approach was proven in the classrooms of the Academy; its students entering graduate engineering schools were found to possess a better understanding of astrodynamics than others.So pressing is the need for superior training in the aerospace sciences that the professor-authors of this text decided to publish it for other institutions' use.This Dover edition is the result.The text is structured for teaching.Central emphasis is on use of the universal variable formulation, although classical methods are discussed.Several original unpublished derivations are included.A foundation for all that follows is the developmen