Micro, nano and pico satellites launched from the Romanian territory

In the frame of National Program “Aerospatial” The National Institute of Turbomachinery—COMOTI, Bucharest, Romania proposes a project of launching with minimum cost of microsatellites using the national territory. The geographical position of Romania is optimum for satellites launching due to the presence of the Black Sea in the eastern part of the country and due to its elongated shape, West–East, offering a launching surface of 1500 km (W–E) ×250km (N–S). Two modes of launching were analyzed: vertical, from the soil and horizontal, from a carrier aircraft. The second mode of launching doubtless has some advantages, particularly from the point of view of costs. It was analyzed the launching of a LEO satellite as a payload of a single stage rocket with solid propellant, launched from a fighter aircraft. The aerodynamic coefficients of the rocket, the equation of movement on the trajectory and the rocket engine thrust were calculated using a FORTRAN program—LSCS (language for the simulation the continuous systems). The shape of the trajectory was imposed (not optimized), finally resulting the performances, the main geometrical dimensions of the rocket and the mass of the satellite.