Recent news:
24.11.2011: Version 1.1.9 is released!
For this version Richard Graham has implemented geodetic computation methods, which take into account the curvature of the Earth and the coriolis effect. The computation method is selected by the Geodetic calculations option in the simulation options. It's not (yet) a full spherical computation model, but should be accurate enough for almost all sub-orbital needs.
Doug Pedrick has also enhanced the printing system with the ability to print fin positioning guides, transition templates and nose cone profiles. Other smaller enhancements and bug fixes are also included.
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.
Ready packages
These are packages ready for use and are the recommended download for normal users. They are pre-packaged with motor thrust curves from thrustcurve.org.
OpenRocket requires Java version 6 or later. The Sun Java Runtime is recommended.
Development release
The development release contains the latest and greatest features, but may contain more bugs than the stable version. Currently the development version is the recommended download.
Stable release
Occasionally during OpenRocket development focus will shift from feature development towards getting all open bugs fix and to produce a stable release. No updates are made to the stable branch except for possible bug fixes, so the stable release has less features than the development release.
The current stable release is OpenRocket-1.0.0.jar
Running OpenRocket
OpenRocket can be started in most graphical environments (including Windows) by double-clicking the package icon. No installation is required.
From the command line OpenRocket can be started by java -jar OpenRocket-1.1.9.jar
Source code and older versions
Source packages and older versions of OpenRocket are available in the SourceForge repository.
Alternatively, the most recent development version can be obtained from the SVN repository. It can be retrieved simply using the command
$ svn co https://openrocket.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/openrocket/trunk OpenRocket
The above URL may be used to connect to the repository with other Subversion clients as well.
