Launch Vehicle Performance Optimization

AscendArc develops trajectory optimization and launch vehicle flight software for the commercial launch industry. The company’s name reflects its core capability: optimizing the ‘arc’ that a launch vehicle follows as it ‘ascends’ from Earth’s surface to orbit — the trajectory that determines how much payload a given rocket can deliver to a specified orbit.

Trajectory optimization for launch vehicles is a computationally intensive problem involving constrained optimization over continuous dynamic systems — balancing gravity losses, aerodynamic drag, propellant consumption, staging events, fairing separation, and orbit injection accuracy across a multi-stage ascent. Even small improvements in trajectory algorithm efficiency can translate to hundreds of kilograms of additional payload capacity on a given mission.

AscendArc’s flight software for guidance, navigation, and control (GNC) implements real-time trajectory planning algorithms that can update the optimal ascent path mid-flight in response to wind disturbances, off-nominal performance, or range safety constraints. The company targets commercial launch vehicle developers (the growing NewSpace launch sector needs cost-efficient GNC software) and provides trajectory analysis as a service to satellite operators planning rideshare missions.