Finding your little corner of space…

little orbit
Copper Spaceport
01/First light
Total fuel0.0
HOMEfind your orbit
Pull back to launch
Settling into orbit0%
YOUR JOURNEY

Choose your orbit.

1 of 27 · 0 of 27 completed
HOW TO PLAY

Give gravity a nudge.

  1. Pull back to launch forward.Press the rocket and pull opposite your intended shot, then release. Short pulls make gentle shots; longer pulls build power faster. The arrow and dotted curve show the forward shot. While you hold the rocket, your finger controls only the shot. The view stays fixed; release before panning, rotating or zooming.
  2. Coast, pause, adjust.Press the moving rocket, or Pause flight, for another shot. Your existing momentum is preserved, so aim against it to slow down. Burn strength determines fuel cost; coasting is free. Restart the level to refill your tank.
  3. Save fuel to build your score.Total fuel adds your best remaining fuel from each completed level. Replays count only when they improve that level’s best. Your score is saved on this device.
  4. Learn from your flight paths.The last three flights on each level stay as faint gray lines, saved on this device. A new burn starts a new flight path. Satellites, planets, stars and debris have short forward paths showing where they are headed. Motion pauses while you aim.
  5. Orbit the green star.Glide into the green ring roughly sideways at a manageable speed. The rocket will fire reverse thrusters and settle into orbit automatically; no final correction burn is required. In the Stellar Slingshots bonus levels, first skim the marked assist star until its label turns green, then settle into home orbit.

Drag empty space to pan. Use two fingers to rotate horizontally, drag vertically to tilt, pinch to zoom, or twist to turn. One finger pans. The view starts at 45° and tilts between 30° and 60°. The Rotate button switches one-finger dragging to rotation and tilt. Each course opens at home and pulls back to your rocket; tap to skip. The camera follows your rocket until you pan. Recenter resumes the view along the course toward home. On desktop, shift-drag also rotates; arrow keys aim and Space launches.

About the physics

Scaled Newtonian gravity, a fixed-step leapfrog integrator, and prescribed slow circular orbits for companion bodies. Stars and independent planets follow gentle, bounded drift paths. The rocket moves in two dimensions. The surface illustrates the potential. Background lensing uses a thin-lens mapping that forms distorted images and arcs, with exaggerated strength for visibility; it is not full relativistic ray tracing. Drifting debris follows the same gravity and is replaced periodically after impacts. Time pauses between turns; there is no space friction. The forgiving arrival assist accepts near-tangential approaches and automatically brakes into a stable celebration orbit. This capture assist is a gameplay aid; free flight still uses the gravitational simulation.