astronauticsnow.com

Founder of the USC Astronautics Program

Professor of Astronautics

Chairman 2004-2007 (founding chairman) and 2016-2019

USC Department of Astronautical Engineering (ASTE)

Mike has been teaching ASTE 575 Rocket and Spacecraft Propulsion since the mid 1990s. Originally, the course number was (AE, AME, and finally ASTE) 470 and changed to 575 for administrative purposes in 2023. Graduate students as well as seniors took the course.

In the mid-1990s, Mike introduced a new course section for a growing category of online students (working full time in space industry and government centers) through the USC Viterbi's Distance Education Network.

The course Rocket and Spacecraft Propulsion became a must for science and engineering students, regardless of their major, considering professional careers in the space industry, rocketry, space operations, and government space research and development centers.

In the early 2010s, Mike significantly updated the content of this required course on rocketry and propulsion and resumed its annual teaching in 2014. The new richly illustrated class notes included more than 650 pages.

The last time, he offered ASTE-575 in Spring 2025.

During 2014-2025, more than 850 graduate and senior students enrolled in his Rocket and Spacecraft Propulsion.

In total (including the 1990s), more than 1200 students took the class.

160+ problems with detailed solutions Fundamentals of Space Missions Stars, star magnitudes, and solar system. Coordinate systems, time, angles. Space environment and spacecraft interactions. Gravitational field and Earth. Basics of orbital mechanics. Orbital elements and maneuvers. Orbit evolution and common orbits. Space mission geometry.

Fundamentals of Space Missions – 3-page info (pdf) – list of problems