Fundamentals of Astrodynamics: Second Edition (Dover Books on Physics)

I found this textbook on astrodynamics to be a great resource for introductory discussions of orbital mechanics. It covers several essential chapters and provides a solid foundation. The price is very reasonable, making it accessible for students. However, there are some small problems that could be improved. Overall, it’s a helpful textbook for anyone new to the field.

I had to take a crash refresher course on Calculus to understand what was being said, but the book is well written, well organized, and easy to digest once you get your feet under you.

I ordered this book from Amazon on 16 Jan 2020 and received it on 21 Jan. So the one-star review that says it won't be published is incorrect, misleading to potential buyers and should be removed.I have used the first edition of BMW over the course of my career since it was issued to me at the Air Force Academy in 1979. It was my primary resource in earning a BS, MS, and PhD in Aerospace Engineering. My first edition is dog-eared in all the important places.I'm blessed to have a job where many of my colleagues and customers want to learn some basic Astro. I have them all start with BMW. Then move on to Vallado!I just paged carefully through the new edition and it has all the fundamental original material, but that is now supplemented with new material developed in the intervening years. The art of astrodynamics has evolved from the slide rule to the digital computer.The preface mentions the book includes links to STK exercises and tutorials. This will be very helpful to all skill levels of student and professional engineer. I also recommend implementing BMWS equations and algorithms using MATLAB.Many thanks to William Saylor for the love he put into updating this classic tool, and to his wife Mary for her devotion in typing up the first draft.

The media could not be loaded. I haven’t taken calculus yet (still in HS) so I’m having a hard time understanding the equations, but it’s very informative, if a bit dense. It could use a few more diagrams to make comprehension easier.I’m planning on majoring in aerospace engineering and I would recommend it to juniors/seniors with the same goal or those just starting college

A great price for all the basics of astrodynamics. Excellent book.

Cheapest deal for the textbook I could find

The original is a classic and every fellow astrodynamicist has a copy of it somewhere. When I first took a class about it several years ago, this book helped me understand the subject far better than the required text did. However, there were a number of minor complaints I had about it: frequent imperial units, ugly equation typesetting, no relative motion development, and a lacking of problems relevant to modern tools.This edition has solved all of these issues, and it has added more on top of that. Especially when considering the price, this is the ultimate modern introductory astrodynamics textbook and everyone who is interested in learning the subject should pick up a copy at some point.

I've got the first edition and it was getting tattered so I picked up this second edition to have at work as a ref, great book, and this edition is better than the first. Though still doesn't really go advanced and you'd better be up to date on your calculus and linear algebra to make any sense of it.