STK GUI screenshot
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Developer(s) | Analytical Graphics, Inc. |
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Stable release |
11.1 / June 2016
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Operating system | Windows |
Type | Technical computing |
License | Proprietary |
Website | STK product page |
Systems Tool Kit (formerly Satellite Tool Kit), often referred to by its initials STK, is a physics-based software package from Analytical Graphics, Inc. that allows engineers and scientists to perform complex analyses of ground, sea, air, and space assets, and share results in one integrated solution. At the core of STK is a geometry engine for determining the time-dynamic position and attitude of objects ("assets"), and the spatial relationships among the objects under consideration including their relationships or accesses given a number of complex, simultaneous constraining conditions. STK has been developed since 1989 as a commercial off the shelf software tool. Originally created to solve problems involving Earth-orbiting satellites, it is now used in the aerospace and defense communities and for many other applications.
AGI states that STK has more than 50,000 installations at more than 800 global organizations such as NASA, ESA, CNES, DLR, Boeing, JAXA, ISRO, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, EADS, DOD, and Civil Air Patrol.
AGI posts Case Studies here of its customers in the areas of:
STK can be downloaded for free and has paid upgrade modules for more complex capability. As of release 10, the free version of STK includes 3D visualization, previously a paid upgrade module. The latest version available is STK 11.1.
In 1989, the three founders of Analytical Graphics, Inc. - Paul Graziani, Scott Reynolds and Jim Poland, left GE Aerospace to create Satellite Tool Kit (STK) as an alternative to bespoke, project-specific aerospace software.