Nicheloom visits: 58,069 all-time · 7,637 in the last 7 days

The opportunity tracker for new startups.

Today: 1,953 launches · Niche of the day: specialized calculation tools · See what launched today →

Rocket Launch and Orbit Simulator

Get picks like this daily. Today's launch numbers, the top launches, AI and tech news, and a daily opportunity pick, straight to your inbox.

Want to reach these readers? Sponsor an issue.

I (17y/o) have been developing a rocket launch simulation that allows the user to explore what it's like launching a rocket from earth and putting it into orbit. This idea originally started as an educational simulation but as i've gone more down the rabbit hole the more i've wanted to make it realistic. The problem is that I've never had a formal orbital mechanics class or anything like that so I don't know what I'm missing, what I currently have implemented is: Variable gravity Variable Atmospheric drag (US Standard Atmosphere 1976) Multi-stage rockets Closed-loop guidance / pitch programs (works well within ranges 350km to 600km) Orbital prediction and thrusting options to change your orbit. The feedback I'm looking for is: UI improvements and possible future physics implementations that I can work on.Current code and physics can be found at: https://github.com/donutTheJedi/Rocket-Launch-Simulation

HN · launched Jan 9, 2026 · 166 upvotes (top 5%) · 0 views

Niche: physics and engineering simulation software · 104 launches, 8 in the last 7 days ▲ +14% · Explore this niche →

Category and tags
  • Education
  • Dev tools
  • B2C
  • Not AI
  • Hobby / open-source project

Visit website ↗ Source listing ↗

More like this: all 104 launches in physics and engineering simulation software →

Could you build this?

Partial While basic web games can be built with LLMs, realistic orbital mechanics, aerodynamic drag modeling, and multi-stage vehicle dynamics require careful numerical physics simulation.

What it would actually take: A browser-based physics engine using Three.js/Canvas along with custom numerical integrators (like Runge-Kutta 4th order) modeling atmospheric density layers, dynamic pressure (Max Q), gravity turns, and multi-body gravitational mechanics. The hard part is maintaining numerical stability and accurate aerodynamic/orbital conversions in real-time under variable timesteps.

Discussion

20 comments analyzed.

Competitors mentioned: KSP-KOS-PEG (orbital mechanics implementation), PEGAS - Powered Explicit Guidance Ascent System, Other orbital dynamics simulators

Concerns raised: 45-degree thrust vector creates unrealistic dynamic pressure (150 kPa vs Falcon 9's 35 kPa max), Fuel inefficient trajectory compared to real-world optimization, Using AI to write code without learning physics/programming fundamentals, Over-reliance on AI reduces portfolio interview strength, High zoom sensitivity makes UI cumbersome

Feature requests: Random star positions instead of sine/cosine patterns, Implement UPFG/PEGAS closed-loop guidance system, Improve color theme and visual design, Better user onboarding on what to learn from simulation, More intuitive zoom controls

Competitors

Other products that read as similar to this one : 144 launches clear the similarity bar, closest 8 shown.

Attention rank: #10 of 145 (itself plus its competitors, highest first, normalized so YC and Product Hunt are compared fairly).

Launched 58 days after the earliest competitor.

Related data

The niche, labels, vibe code rating and competitor comparison on this page are analysis by Nicheloom. If you use them, please credit nicheloom.com. How you may use our data.