The book is a classic in the field of astrodynamics, but that is exactly what it is: outdated. The book is designed with engineering students in mind, who do not have a deep understanding of physics and especially mathematics (calculus isn't the summit of mathematics!). The book ends where it starts to get interesting (real-life situations). Yes, many books only deal with ideal situations, which can be solved explicitly, but a book on astrodynamics naturally means that you are dealing with the physical reality of imperfection, so deal with it.

However, if you don't know anything of astrodynamics and you are interested in an introduction this is a good (and cheap, thanks to Dover publications' reprints) place to start. Don't be fooled, however, it's not a book on orbital mechanics, since there is a lot more mathematics to orbital mechanics than is shown in this book (e.g. numerical methods, perturbations and averaging methods). A very comprehensive book on astrodynamics is by Vallado, for those who want a complete overview and lots of pseudocode computer programmes (although even that book is not state-of-the-art).

The book presents a very detailed introduction to orbital mechanics. However, it does not deal with spacecraft rotations, which are an important part of spacecraft motion. Therefore, the book is advisable if you are planning to study only orbital mechanics. I would recommend that you refer to another text book if you want a more complete introduction to astrodynamics.

An excellent introduction that is VERY readable. Chapter 4 has a nice section on using Universal Formulation for time of flight. Intro books costing over $100.00 are not of this quality. This book is a rare case where you get more than you pay for.

This is an excellent text for students and professionals working in aerospace engineering, physics and astronomy. Good luck finding an astrodynamics book more clearly written and illustrated.

The math is accessible to any serious undergraduate student in the physical sciences. Admittedly, the mathematical treatment is a bit dated, geared toward a 1970's engineer with a slide rule. However, a good Matlab programmer can just take the formulas and go from there using modern methods on a desktop computer.

This is a practical book that focuses on helping the reader master the basic physics, coordinate transforms and methods for dealing with a body's translational motion in a central-force gravity field. It does not cover more advanced topics such as rotational dynamics, gravity models, or navigation & control systems. The historical anecdotes are great - fascinating and pertinent as well. This may not be the end-all book on astrodynamics, but it's a reference I always keep close at hand.

This is an excellent text for students and professionals working in aerospace engineering, physics and astronomy. Good luck finding an astrodynamics book more clearly written and illustrated.

The math is accessible to any serious undergraduate student in the physical sciences. Admittedly, the mathematical treatment is a bit dated, geared toward a 1970's engineer with a slide rule. However, a good Matlab programmer can just take the formulas and go from there using modern methods on a desktop computer.

This is a practical book that focuses on helping the reader master the basic physics, coordinate transforms and methods for dealing with a body's translational motion in a central-force gravity field. It does not cover more advanced topics such as rotational dynamics, gravity models, or navigation & control systems. The historical anecdotes are great - fascinating and pertinent as well. This may not be the end-all book on astrodynamics, but it's a reference I always keep close at hand.

Affectionately referred to as BMW (from the author names), this book was the required text for my intro spaceflight mechanics course in college. Not only did I do just about every problem in the book (which helped me blow away the final), but over the next 15 years I kept coming back to it for quick reference. Some of my commercial products contain simple Kepler solvers and orbit integrators that began life in BMW. Compared to other books in this field, it's a deceptively easy read. But I know of at least one rocket destroyed by engineers ignorant of the basics in sections 9.5 and 9.6. Sure, it leaves out chaos and I really wish it used SI rather than imperial units (actually, it favors canonical units, a useful and units-agnostic concept). But BMW is the simplest, most intuitive intro to astrodynamics I've ever seen.

The arguments of the book are very well explained.
Any argument is accompanied by numerical examples very useful for a better understanding of the argument itself.

This is a very useful book on astrodynamics, which teaches the fundamentals quite well. And yes, you have to do the problems to get full value from the book. For example, in Chapter 3, the book discusses the Hohmann transfer, which gets us between two circular coplanar orbits with the least velocity change with two impulse transfers. Now, some people I know think that this is the best you can do! That you can't get there with less delta-v. However, that's simply false. And the authors point this out in problems 3.9 and 3.10 at the end of the chapter, where they discuss bielliptical transfers.

If I were trying to become adept at doing astrodynamics, I'd be sure to make use of computers as well. I'd have exercises where I developed or modified some code, maybe in Matlab. I'd use these for getting answers, showing the effects of approximations, and visualizing solutions. The book suggests using computers and even has some computer-based exercises, but it was written in 1971, and computer-based options are much, much better here in the 21st century.

I highly recommend this book.

This is a very useful book on astrodynamics, which teaches the fundamentals quite well. And yes, you have to do the problems to get full value from the book. For example, in Chapter 3, the book discusses the Hohmann transfer, which gets us between two circular coplanar orbits with the least velocity change with two impulse transfers. Now, some people I know think that this is the best you can do! That you can't get there with less delta-v. However, that's simply false. And the authors point this out in problems 3.9 and 3.10 at the end of the chapter, where they discuss bielliptical transfers.

If I were trying to become adept at doing astrodynamics, I'd be sure to make use of computers as well. I'd have exercises where I developed or modified some code, maybe in Matlab. I'd use these for getting answers, showing the effects of approximations, and visualizing solutions. The book suggests using computers and even has some computer-based exercises, but it was written in 1971, and computer-based options are much, much better here in the 21st century.

I highly recommend this book.

Do the math. Study the problems. Derive the equations. You will go to the stars. De Motu resurrected. Isaac Newton watch out!

Do the math. Study the problems. Derive the equations. You will go to the stars. De Motu resurrected. Isaac Newton watch out!

The book isn't intended to be all things to all people. It covers fundamentals. I have worked in the field and keep two copies ;)

The review of vector mathematics in the appendix is especially useful for non-specialists who want to start studying this topic.

A quick examination of the table of contents gives an idea of the scope of topics for this text. It covers a wide range of topics with a pretty good introduction to the general problem of ballistic missile trajectories. Some of the terminology is a bit dated, however, which can cause some confusion to readers familiar with some of the material. For example, it uses the term "Geocentric-Equatorial Coordinate System" to describe a geocentric Cartesian frame better known as the "Earth-Centered Inertial (ECI)". However, this does not diminish the value of the material contained in this work. I highly recommend it as an introduction to astrodynamics.

George Chastain
Software Consultant/Systems Engineer
Huntsville, Al

While working for NASA/JPL back in the 1970's and 80's, I first used this book as a reference source while doing engineering support for radio astronomy experiments. I recall at the time wishing I'd know of the book a few years earlier while still at the Univ. of Arizona; while a student I would have found plenty of use for it.
Recently I have returned to academia, and find myself making use some of its material for by my lower-division astronomy students. I've come to depend on it for its clearly-written explanations of the various coordinate systems, reference frames and obital dynamics. And I especially like the way it introduces n-body problems and the how they are affected by perturbations. For myself I even make some use of it when doing calindrical calculations.
It is among a handful of reference sources that I find almost continuously useful in so many applications.

Written in the 1970s for use at the Air Force Academy, this book, though quite old, is still a great reference for those wishing to learn basic astrodynamics. It covers most of the major topics in very good detail, and is suitable for self-study as well as classroom instruction. Its age does not really have a significant impact on the quality of its content.

This book is a fairly complete overview of planetary mechanics, at least from the standpoint of the Newtonian formulation of the problem, for the authors do not use Lagrangian or Hamiltonian methods. The use of Hamiltonian formulation, via phase space constructions, sheds considerable light on the two-body and the N-body problems, but the reader interested in Hamiltonian mechanics will have to look elsewhere. Also, the authors do not discuss the presence of chaotic dynamics in orbital mechanics, nor are integrability issues discussed. In addition, the current debate over modifications of Newtonian mechanics is not included in the book, due to its time of publication.

But if one wants a practical introduction to Newtonian orbital mechanics that also addresses numerical issues, this would be a good book to begin with. I would recommend the use of a symbolic programming language, such as Mathematica or Maple, to assist in the visualization of the orbits and in the routine computations if one were to use this book as an aid to teaching orbital mechanics. Another good feature of the book is the interjection of historical background and anecdotes at various places in the book. For example, one learns that it was Edmund Halley who was primarily responsible for bringing Newton's discoveries to the world. Newton's work remained idle for twenty years until Halley encouraged Newton to publish his explanation of planetary motion.

The mechanics as outlined in this book is timeless and will continue to be learned by future generations of students as they take up the reigns of human exploration beyond the Moon to the entire solar system.

The sections on the Kepler Problem (given orbit, find position at time) and Gauss Problem (given two points and time between, find orbit) were especially helpful to me. This book was clearly written with computers in mind, even though there is no code in the book. All of the most important algorithms are given in a step-by-step manner, with clear cross-references to the relevant equations. Derivations for allmost all important formulas are given from first principles, so that when an error in either the book or my code showed up, I was able to trace the source of the error. I saw very few errors in the book. Also especially helpful were several fully-worked examples, construced such that I could follow the example and my program in parallel, step by step, and verify that they agree.

With the help of this book, I was able to reconstruct the departure and interplanetary cruise of the Mars Odyssey 2001 spacecraft.

This book, the last word on astrodynamics (and the first, incidentally), covers every aspect of orbital mechanics, from Newton's gravitational equation to launch to transfer orbits to aberrational effects. It is clear and thorough. My only caveat is that it its old. A new edition done with the aid of computers, color ink, and more contemporary exercises would go a long way towards clearer understanding.

I bought this book here in the United States because when I had a problem with coordinate transformations it gave me great insight. Its approach to the subject was very fundamental. The only problem I had going through this book was with the use of old units. I will therefore suggest that a revised edition based on Scientific Units (SI unit) be considered and I believe this would make this book become more universal. It is indeed a great book on this subject!

f you want to know the science of Astrodynamics read this book. If you work with orbital analysis or orbital mechanics this book for you. For the beginners calculus, Algebra and some geometry knowledge are required otherwise the other aspect are well explained. I like the examples with its solution in this book, it force the reader to understand the principle especially if the subject sometimes is out of our daily vision. I have no problem following up this book, it simple and has all the principle and scientific logic you need to understand the science of space dynamics. It's a very good bargain with its price.

This is a really good introduction to the subject, and is quite suitable for self-study (that is how I used it). The math required is calculus, some vector analysis, and a little linear algebra. You need to be comfortable with basic matrix operations, but don't worry about abstract vector spaces. Very readable, with useful exercises. And the price is right! It is a very "cost-effective" book.

The true measure of the usefulness of any technical book is how many people own it. Every orbit guy I know (including me) has one. Just about every satellite ops person I know has a copy. Very few books indeed are generally known by the authors' initials, but "BMW" is one such book.

The book provides information required to perform basic orbital analysis. Even when I'm doing analyses far beyond the technical scope of the book, it is the first one I reach for.

Ran into this one in grad school; has an excellent treatment of vector calculus in the appendix. Get this one if you are into orbital mechanics, guidance and nav. It's a short paperback type of book, easy to cart around in a briefcase. All steely-eyed missile men have this one.

It is a good basic cookbook of rocket scienc

This work was written by three instructors at the USAF Academy for use as a textbook. It provides an excellent introduction to astrodynamics. A knowledge of calculus and linear algebra is required, but the derivations are quite reasonable. The diagrams are also very good, enabling the reader to visualize complex spatial orientations.

The book's only weakness is its age. Several real-world examples are out-of-date, and the numerical analysis techniques do not reflect the current state-of-the-art.

Nevertheless, this is the best book to start learning astrodynamics, and gives a solid foundation from which to study more advanced texts.

Bate, Mueller and White's (BMW) Fundamentals of Astrodynamics was written initially for cadets at the US Air Force Academy to provide them with an overview of space dynamics, coordinate systems and orbital mechanics. BMW is a good "guided tour" of the subject, but has weaknesses in areas such as the two-point boundary-value problem, and in the theory of perturbations. When used as a text or reference handbook for basic two-body orbital problems, BMW is a quick, inexpensive and reliable guide. More sophisticated references should be consulted for more sophisticated problems. A must on every satellite engineer or trajectory analyst's bookshelf.