Screenshots

The main rocket design window is used to design the rocket and it also provides information about a flight simulation in real-time.

The component shape and properties are defined in their own dialog.

You can analyze the effect of individual components on the stability, drag and roll characteristics of the rocket.

You can edit simulation parameters to match your weather and launch conditions.

You can choose which simulation parameters you want to plot or export, using predefined plot configurations or a self-defined one.

Simulation plots (left = line marker, right = icon marker)

The simulations are plotted using the JFreeChart plotting library.
Flight events can be annotated using either a line marker, or an icon maker.

Features of OpenRocket

Current features

General

Fully cross-platform, written in Java
Fully documented simulation methods
Open Source (see our GitHub repository), source code available under the GNU GPL
Export OpenRocket design file to other simulation programs (RockSim, RASAero II)
Export component(s) to OBJ file for 3D printing

User interface

Easy-to-use user interface for rocket design
Real-time view of CG and CP position
Real-time flight altitude, velocity and acceleration information from a continuous simulation performed in the background
Zoomable schematic view of rocket from the side or rear, with rotation around the center axis

Design

A multitude of available components to choose from
Trapezoidal, elliptical, free-form and tube fins supported
Support for canted fins (roll stabilization)
Staging and clustering support
Pods support
Automatic calculation of component mass and CG based on shape and density
Ability to override mass, CG and CD of components or stages separately

Simulation and analysis

Full six degree of freedom simulation
Rocket stability computed using extended Barrowman method
Automatic design optimization — you can optimize any number of rocket parameters for flight altitude, maximum velocity or a number of other values
Realistic wind modeling
Analysis of the effect of separate components on the stability, drag and roll characteristics of the rocket
Fully configurable plotting, with various preset configurations
Simulation data can be exported to CSV files for further analysis
Simulation listeners allowing custom-made code to interact with the rocket during flight simulation

Planned future features

OpenRocket is under constant work in the free time of the developers. You can have a sneak preview on what has been planned by checking the TODO-file in the git repository.

Below are a few major features that are under consideration:

Aerodynamic computation using CFD (help needed!)
Better support for supersonic simulation (help needed!)
Printing and saving figures, simulation data and designs
Customized support for hybrid rocket motors and water rockets
Importing and plotting actual flight data from altimeters
Rocket flight animation
A “wizard” for creating new rocket designs

If you want to help make OpenRocket the best rocket simulator, don’t hesitate to Get involved!