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An accurate and efficient core layer for space flight dynamics applications

Orekit is a low level space dynamics library written in Java. Orekit is designed to be easily used in very different contexts, from quick studies up to critical operations.

As a library, Orekit provides basic elements (orbits, dates, attitude, frames, …) and various algorithms to handle them (conversions, propagations, pointing, events detection, orbit determination …).

Features

• Accurate Orbit Propagation: Supports analytical, semianalytical, numerical, and TLE-based propagation.

• Flexible Orbit and Attitude Models: Easily switch between Cartesian, Keplerian, circular, and equinoctial orbit representations. Includes standard and customizable attitude laws (e.g., nadir, target pointing…).

• Event Detection: Built-in detectors for eclipses, ground station visibility…

• Maneuver Modeling: Supports impulse and continuous maneuvers with integration into propagation and event detection.

• Robust Time and Reference Frames: High-precision time handling with multiple time scales and leap second support. Reference frames for Earth-centered and inertial calculations.

• Orbit Determination: Tools for orbit fitting, parameter estimation, and measurement processing.

• Reliable Earth and Environmental Models: Includes Earth shape and potential for realistic simulations.

• Standard Format and Data Handling: Supports reading and writing common space data formats for easy integration and interoperability.

• Open Source and Easy Integration: Thanks to its Apache License 2.0.

• And much more !

Installation

1. Requirements

Before you begin, make sure you have the following installed:

2. Add Orekit as a Dependency

For Maven, add the following to your pom.xml inside the <dependencies> section:

<!-- https://mvnrepository.com/artifact/org.orekit/orekit -->
<dependency>
  <groupId>org.orekit</groupId>
  <artifactId>orekit</artifactId>
  <version>VERSION_NUMBER</version>
</dependency>

Note: You can find the available versions on the maven repository

3. Download Orekit Data

Orekit requires external data files (Earth orientation parameters, leap seconds, etc.). To get these data, you can either:

• Download the Physical Data on the Official Orekit website and extract the archive
• Clone the Official Orekit data repository

4. Load Orekit data

Your Orekit-dependant application will most likely require you to load previously downloaded Orekit data. A simple way to do this is to use the following code snippet:

      final File orekitData = new File("path/to/orekit/data/folder");
      final DataProvider dirCrawler = new DirectoryCrawler(orekitData);
      DataContext.getDefault().getDataProvidersManager().addProvider(dirCrawler);

Replace /path/to/orekit-data with the actual path to your unzipped data folder.

Getting Started

Keplerian propagation

In this section, you will learn the building blocks to create a KeplerianPropagator.

Note: It is assumed that the code necessary to load the Orekit data is written at the beginning of your script as explained in Installation

1. Create an Orbit

The first step is to create an Orbit. Several types are available in Orekit:

• KeplerianOrbit
• CartesianOrbit
• EquinoctialOrbit
• CircularOrbit

For the sake of this example, we will build a KeplerianOrbit

double sma = 7000e3; // Semi-major axis [m]
double ecc = 0.001; // Eccentricity [-]
double inc = FastMath.toRadians(15); // Inclination [rad]
double pa = FastMath.toRadians(30); // Perigee Argument [rad]
double raan = FastMath.toRadians(45); // Right Ascension of the Ascending Node[rad]
double anomaly = FastMath.toRadians(60); // Anomaly [rad]

PositionAngleType positionAngleType = PositionAngleType.MEAN; // Type of anomaly angle used (MEAN, TRUE, ECCENTRIC)
Frame inertialFrame = FramesFactory.getGCRF(); // Earth-Centered Inertial frame
AbsoluteDate date = new AbsoluteDate(2002, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0, TimeScalesFactory.getUTC()); // Date of the orbit
double mu = Constants.EIGEN5C_EARTH_MU; // Earth's standard gravitational parameter used in EIGEN-5C gravity field model

Orbit orbit = new KeplerianOrbit(sma, ecc, inc, pa, raan, anomaly,
                                 positionAngleType, inertialFrame, date, mu);

System.out.println(orbit);

Keplerian parameters: {a: 7000000.0; e: 0.001; i: 15.000000000000002; pa: 30.000000000000004; raan: 45.0; v: 60.09930121319573;}

2. Create a Propagator

Now that we have defined an orbit, we can create a Propagator to specify how the orbit will be propagated through time.

In this case we will create a basic KeplerianPropagator:

Propagator propagator = new KeplerianPropagator(orbit);

3. Propagate !

You are now ready to propagate this orbit through time. To do so you can specify:

• The initial and final propagation dates, the propagator will propagate in this time interval
• The final propagation date only, the propagator will propagate between internal state date and this final propagation date

We will propagate for one Constants.JULIAN_DAY starting from the initial orbit date:

AbsoluteDate targetDate = date.shiftedBy(Constants.JULIAN_DAY);
SpacecraftState propagatedState = propagator.propagate(targetDate);

Note: The propagator outputs a SpacecraftState which holds the propagated Orbit

System.out.println(propagatedState.getOrbit());

Keplerian parameters: {a: 7000000.0; e: 0.001; i: 15.000000000000002; pa: 30.000000000000004; raan: 45.0; v: 5396.513788732658;}

import org.hipparchus.util.FastMath;
import org.orekit.data.DataContext;
import org.orekit.data.DataProvider;
import org.orekit.data.DirectoryCrawler;
import org.orekit.frames.Frame;
import org.orekit.frames.FramesFactory;
import org.orekit.orbits.KeplerianOrbit;
import org.orekit.orbits.Orbit;
import org.orekit.orbits.PositionAngleType;
import org.orekit.propagation.Propagator;
import org.orekit.propagation.SpacecraftState;
import org.orekit.propagation.analytical.KeplerianPropagator;
import org.orekit.time.AbsoluteDate;
import org.orekit.time.TimeScalesFactory;
import org.orekit.utils.Constants;

import java.io.File;

public class KeplerianPropagation {
public static void main(String[] args) {

    // Load the Orekit data
    final File orekitData = new File("/path/to/orekit/data/folder");
    if (!orekitData.exists()) {
      System.err.format("Orekit data file not found: %s\n", orekitData.getAbsolutePath());
    }
    final DataProvider dirCrawler = new DirectoryCrawler(orekitData);
    DataContext.getDefault().getDataProvidersManager().addProvider(dirCrawler);

    // Define an arbitrary orbit
    double sma = 7000e3; // Semi-major axis [m]
    double ecc = 0.001; // Eccentricity [-]
    double inc = FastMath.toRadians(15); // Inclination [rad]
    double pa = FastMath.toRadians(30); // Perigee Argument [rad]
    double raan = FastMath.toRadians(45); // Right Ascension of the Ascending Node[rad]
    double anomaly = FastMath.toRadians(60); // Anomaly [rad]

    PositionAngleType positionAngleType = PositionAngleType.MEAN; // Type of anomaly angle used (MEAN, TRUE, ECCENTRIC)
    Frame inertialFrame = FramesFactory.getGCRF(); // Earth-Centered Inertial frame
    AbsoluteDate date = new AbsoluteDate(2002, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0, TimeScalesFactory.getUTC()); // Date of the orbit
    double mu = Constants.EIGEN5C_EARTH_MU; // Earth's standard gravitational parameter used in EIGEN-5C gravity field model

    Orbit orbit = new KeplerianOrbit(sma, ecc, inc, pa, raan, anomaly,
                                     positionAngleType, inertialFrame, date, mu);

    System.out.println(orbit);

    // Set up sma Keplerian propagator
    Propagator propagator = new KeplerianPropagator(orbit);

    // Propagate to one day later
    AbsoluteDate    targetDate      = date.shiftedBy(Constants.JULIAN_DAY);
    SpacecraftState propagatedState = propagator.propagate(targetDate);

    System.out.println(propagatedState.getOrbit());
}

}

Going further

Tutorials

For more advanced usage of Orekit, check out the Official Orekit tutorials repository.

Documentation

The following documentation is available:

• Latest API documentation
• Latest Maven site for the project overview, architecture and development, detailed features list, Javadoc and a lot of other information

Getting help

The main communication channel is our forum. You can report bugs and suggest new features in our issues tracking system.

Note: When reporting security issues check the “This issue is confidential” box.

Build & Run locally

Want to include your own modifications to Orekit rather than simply relying on it as a dependency ? Please check out building.md

Python wrapper

If interested in Official Orekit Python wrappers, please check out:

• The JCC wrapper
• The JPype wrapper

Download

Official releases

Official Orekit releases are available on our Gitlab instance. They are also available in the Maven repository.

Development version

To get the latest development version, please clone our official repository and checkout the develop branch:

git clone -b develop https://gitlab.orekit.org/orekit/orekit.git

Note: Our official repository is mirrored on Github.

Contributing

Orekit exists thanks to the contribution of many people. Please take a look at our contributing guidelines if you’re interested in helping!

Dependencies

Orekit relies on the following Free and Open-Source Software libraries, all released under business friendly FOSS licenses.

Compile-time/run-time dependencies

• Hipparchus, a mathematics library released under the Apache License, version 2.0.

Test-time dependencies

• JUnit 6, a widely used unit test framework released under the Eclipse Public License, version 1.0.

• Mockito, a mocking framework for unit tests, released under MIT license.

• ArchUnit, a framework for unit tests on software architecture, released under Apache License, version 2.0.

More detailed information is available in the Maven site.

How to cite

To cite Orekit in publications, please refer to the following Digital Object Identifier for the latest release: 10.5281/zenodo.7249096

For a specific version, search the zenodo website for their respective DOI.

License

Orekit is licensed by CS GROUP under the Apache License, version 2.0. A copy of this license is provided in the LICENSE.txt file.