Inclination Change

The finite inclination planner is available through Planner → New Plan for enabled accounts. Its initial rollout is internal-only. Accounts without access retain their existing chemical inclination workflow. The access check requires the planner to be deployed, an available workspace, and the operator’s release eligibility. It does not grant planning permissions: API authorization and spacecraft ownership remain separate checks.

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Configure a plan

1. Select the spacecraft, an available chemical or electric thruster, and Inclination Change in Overview.
2. Choose the initial orbit and mass source using the existing Initial State step.
3. Set the earliest start and Completion deadline (UTC). The optimizer must complete within this interval; it cannot place a burn before the start.
4. Enter the Target mean inclination (GCRF) and its tolerance. Mean inclination removes the periodic variation present in instantaneous orbital elements.
5. Review the configuration and create the plan. Computation produces a proposal for the existing review/approval workflow.

Chemical and electric Planner computations use the selected initial state’s available propellant above dry mass, without an additional per-plan fuel cap or reserve. They do not restrict firing to sunlight, apply blackout intervals, or impose an authored duty fraction or minimum coast. The selected thruster’s uninterrupted-burn limit and physical mass bounds still apply. Target tolerance and the completion deadline remain binding. New computations from old constrained chemical or electric inputs use this simplified configuration. Existing saved plans keep their original inputs, results and verification evidence; creating another computation does not rewrite that history. Operations Flight Plan uses the same minimal input policy for both propulsion types. The finite planner preserves the entered target’s decimal precision in review and submission. Check the target together with its tolerance before creating the plan. Creation is asynchronous: the accepted request is not yet a computed proposal. The progress dialog follows that request’s actual job outcome, including a useful failure message when computation cannot finish. If the finite capability becomes unavailable after a proposal was created, an owned, replay-verified historical plan can still be read for review. A new finite request or approval is refused with HTTP 422 and error code FINITE_INCLINATION_UNAVAILABLE (and stable code maneuver.finite_inclination.unavailable); neither request starts computation or posts operational burns. This is different from a 403 permission denial, a 404 for an unknown or inaccessible plan, and a planner job failing to find a feasible schedule. A failed replay verification still requires recomputation before review. The legacy chemical inclination workflow remains separate.

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Read the result

Review the computed plan in Overview, Analysis and the proposed maneuvers. Its producing evidence retains the target, achieved mean and instantaneous inclination, actual propellant and timing, effective constraints, and exact replay-verified schedule. Historical results continue to describe their original configuration, including restrictions that no longer apply to new standalone electric computations. The context plot shows instantaneous inclination. Its periodic oscillations are not the mean-target achievement test. Firing time includes only thrust intervals; elapsed time includes waiting and coasting. Plan ΔV is the sum of positive burn costs in m/s, calculated from each verified burn’s mass loss using the rocket equation. Burn components are signed in the saved RTN frame; burns in opposite directions do not cancel the plan’s fuel cost. The total and individual displayed values are rounded independently. Initial State shows the source selection retained by the producing run, including an explicitly selected state vector (for example, SV-128), its mass-source policy, and the frozen epoch, frame and mass. A latest-state selection is labelled as the run-time policy, not resolved again from the spacecraft today. Older plans can retain physical inputs without their original source selection. They show Not retained in this plan for that selection, while the recorded epoch, frame and mass remain available. Recompute to record a new selection; this does not recover or rewrite the historical plan’s missing provenance. The result is the best verified feasible schedule found within the reported search, not proof of a global optimum. An unfinished or unverified trajectory is not presented as a completed plan. Changing physical inputs or burn segments requires recomputing the plan so its verification remains associated with the actual saved schedule.

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Applicability

The current method supports near-circular LEO: mean eccentricity at most 0.01, mean perigee at least 200 km, mean semi-major axis below 7378.137 km, and corrections up to 5°. It does not deliberately raise or lower the orbit to reduce plane-change cost. Natural perturbations continue to act. The model uses the frozen spacecraft’s isotropic cross-sections and does not infer missing battery, thermal or slew-propellant behavior. Review the assumptions and the actual finite-burn sequence for the selected spacecraft. Existing approval and orbit-freshness requirements still apply; computation does not approve burns. See Planner for the shared workflow and Burn Plan for reviewing individual operational maneuvers.

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Chemical and electric inclination in Flight Plan

Operations Flight Plan uses the same simplified chemical and electric inclination inputs. Select the thruster, mean inclination target and tolerance, then use the existing phase timing and proposal source/window selection. These phases do not expose sunlight-only thrust, blackout periods, duty fraction, minimum coast, phase reserve or maximum propellant controls. Physical inventory and thruster limits still apply. New proposals and forecasts use these simplified settings, including for phases saved with earlier restrictions. Saving such a phase adopts the simplified inputs in a new revision. Existing proposals, approvals, burns and their original inputs remain available unchanged. Forecasts describe modeled outcomes; they do not approve burns or verify an operational finite schedule.