Analytical Graphics has ported its astro navigation software suite – Satellite Tool Kit (STK) – to the Linux platform and will run on any Linux release compatible with Red Hat Linux version 6.0. STK 4.1.1 is scheduled to be available in April 2000.
The STK software suite is currently available on Windows 95, 98, 2000 and NT, as well as all the leading UNIX-based analysis platforms. “Recent customer and industry feedback has now dictated the desire for a Linux version of STK,” states AGI’s Vice President of Marketing, Frank Linsalata.
“Fortunately, due to the robustness of our design and STK’s historical support of UNIX platforms, the STK port to Linux was relatively straightforward and painless.”
The Linux movement was kick-started in 1991 when Linus Torvalds, a graduate student at the University of Helsinki, posted his operating system as open-source code on the Internet and urged other programmers to download it and work with him to improve it.
By 1994, Linux (a combination of “Linus” and “Unix”) had 100,000 users. Today, it has between 10 and 20 million users and is the fastest growing operating system in the world.
AGI provides commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) analysis and visualization software solutions for the aerospace industry through its core product Satellite Tool Kit (STK) and a series of specialized STK add-on modules. STK supports end-to-end aerospace systems from mission planning through operations.
Basic applications include calculating and visualizing a vehicle’s position and attitude, determining acquisition times, and analyzing the vehicle’s field of view.
The core functions of STK can be extended with a wide range of add-on modules from AGI that address specialized analysis needs, such as detailed communication link analysis, collision analysis, coverage analysis, maneuver planning, orbit determination, and real-time visualization.
