An Approach to Optimal Guidance of an Advanced Lauch Vehicle Concept

This paper presents an approximate solution for the maximum payload trajectory of a 2-stage launch vehicle using a regular perturbation technique. A zero-order solution for a two stage vehicle based on a flat Earth approximation and negligible atmospheric effect is obtained in closed form. High order correction terms are obtained from the solution of non-homogeneous, first-order linear differential equations by quadrature. This promises a capability for an on-board optimal guidance law implementation.