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Changelog

All notable changes to this project will be documented in this file.

The format is based on Keep a Changelog. Brahe's versioning and deprecation policy is modeled on NumPy's policy rather than strict SemVer — see the versioning documentation for the full policy, including the transitional deprecation window currently in effect.

Each release groups entries under the Keep a Changelog section headings in the order Added, Changed, Deprecated, Removed, Fixed. Entries in Deprecated correspond to APIs that still work in this release but emit a DeprecationWarning or FutureWarning; entries in Removed list APIs that previous releases had deprecated.

[1.5.2] - 2026-05-18

Fixed

  • Fix issue with new release workflow CHANGELOG generation that would result in an error causing the release to fail. Release notes now must be manually generated and committed prior to running the release action. @duncaneddy (#334)

[1.5.1] - 2026-05-18

Added

  • DNumericalOrbitPropagator::builder() - typestate builder that names required fields and lets optional fields be set by name or omitted. build() is only callable once epoch, state, and force_config are all set, enforced via Set/Unset marker type parameters. @markusz (#321)
  • Added states_ecef and states_eme2000 to SGPPropagator. @duncaneddy (#331)
  • Added states_eme2000 to KeplerianPropagator. @duncaneddy (#331)
  • Added states_eci, states_ecef, states_gcrf, states_itrf, and states_eme2000 to NumericalOrbitPropagator. @duncaneddy (#331)
  • Added states to NumericalPropagator. @duncaneddy (#331)
  • New high-fidelity propagator benchmarks under benchmarks/comparative/tasks/propagation_tasks.py: numerical_rk4_grav5x5, numerical_rk4_grav20x20_sun_moon, numerical_rk4_grav80x80_full. Each runs RK4 over one LEO revolution with matched force-model and frame settings on both sides (OreKit loads brahe's EGM2008_360.gfc via ICGEMFormatReader, GCRF inertial frame, ITRF / IAU 2006/2000A body-fixed rotation, DE-440 third-body ephemerides, identical spacecraft mass / area / Cd / Cr). @duncaneddy (#332)
  • New function-level acceleration benchmarks under benchmarks/comparative/tasks/force_model_tasks.py for point-mass gravity, 20×20 and 80×80 spherical-harmonic gravity, and third-body Sun/Moon. These evaluate a single acceleration at a fixed state and epoch, isolating force-model code from integrator behaviour. @duncaneddy (#332)
  • "Force Model" section in docs/about/benchmarks.md documenting the new function-level comparisons. @duncaneddy (#332)
  • GravityModel::load_uncached(model) — explicit cold-load primitive for users who need deterministic memory or want to profile the parse path. @duncaneddy (#332)
  • GravityModel::compute_spherical_harmonics_with_workspace(...) and accel_gravity_spherical_harmonics_with_workspace(...) — variants that accept caller-supplied V/W work matrices, letting hot-path callers (the numerical propagator's dynamics closure, batch orbit-determination residual code) amortize the per-call DMatrix::zeros((n_max + 2)²) allocation. At 80×80 the saved allocation+memset is ~15 µs per call. @duncaneddy (#332)
  • clear_gravity_model_cache() — manual cache invalidation, useful after replacing a FromFile(path) source on disk or in tests. @duncaneddy (#332)
  • mimalloc as the global allocator for the brahe-py Python extension and the comparative-benchmark Rust binary. The brahe core library remains allocator-agnostic so downstream Rust consumers pick their own. @duncaneddy (#332)
  • Added SECONDS_PER_DAY constant. @duncaneddy (#333)

Changed

  • NumericalOrbitPropagator and NumericalPropagator now no longer store accelerations by default to save space and improve performance. @duncaneddy (#330)
  • The FD fallback for HermiteQuintic is removed. Previously, calling HermiteQuintic on a trajectory without stored accelerations would silently degrade to finite-difference acceleration estimation if 3+ points were available; now it errors. Combined with the earlier store_accelerations: false default flip, any code path that today uses HermiteQuintic either needs NumericalPropagationConfig::with_store_accelerations(true) (propagator path) or trajectory.enable_acceleration_storage() (direct path). @duncaneddy (#330)
  • Performance, numerical propagator (no behaviour change): the DNumericalOrbitPropagator hot path now caches the ECI→body-fixed rotation across integrator stages, shares one Arc<GravityModel> across propagators with the same gravity config (no more 60 ms .gfc reload per construction), borrows the state vector instead of cloning it on every stage call, returns the orbital derivative as a stack-allocated Vector6<f64> instead of allocating a fresh DVector, and reuses the spherical-harmonic V/W work matrices across stages. @duncaneddy (#332)
  • GravityModel::from_model_type is now process-wide cache-backed. Repeated calls for the same GravityModelType parse the .gfc file once (~60 ms cold), then return owned clones from the cached Arc (~1 ms each). The public signature is unchanged. Cache is documented as unbounded — see the # Caution block on the function for the growth caveat with many distinct FromFile(path) sources, and use clear_gravity_model_cache() as the escape hatch. @duncaneddy (#332)
  • bias_precession_nutation switched from iauXys06a (full IAU 2000A nutation, ~1300 terms) to iauXys00b (truncated IAU 2000B, ~77 terms). Per-call cost dropped from ~150 µs to ~2.3 µs; agreement with the full series is sub-milliarcsecond, no regressions in tests. @duncaneddy (#332)
  • Refreshed benchmark plots and docs. @duncaneddy (#332)
  • Changed how adding a flaot second time to an Epoch (epc + 42.5) processes the internal addition. Previously, it would loop of remaining nanoseconds and convert them into integer seconds. For large second values, this would result in many loops for a single step, meaning that time addition, a frequent code hot-path, would grow linearly in time. Now it is an O(1) operation. @duncaneddy (#333)

Fixed

  • Update urllib3 to mitigate security vulnerability. @duncaneddy (#326)
  • Some estimation plots used unicode sigma instead of $\sigma$. When latex is installed and defaults to pdfLaTeX compiler, this causes an error. Switch to $\sigma$ everywhere. @duncaneddy (#331)
  • DNumericalOrbitPropagator::propagate_to may hang with fixed-step RK4. At src/propagators/dnumerical_orbit_propagator.rs:2312 the restore-dt_next guard used > instead of >=. With target_epoch = epc + N * step_size constructed by repeated arithmetic, float drift could leave target_rel slightly larger than the integer multiple; Fixed by changing the comparison to >= so the restore fires whenever the integrator returned its preferred step. @duncaneddy (#332)
  • Workspace mismatch in benchmarks/comparative/implementations/rust/Cargo.toml: the crate predated the brahe repo-root workspace and would fail with "current package believes it's in a workspace when it's not". Added an empty [workspace] table so cargo treats the bench as its own workspace root. @duncaneddy (#332)

[1.5.0] - 2026-05-06

Added

  • Added accel_earth_zonal_gravity — a hand-rolled closed-form J2–J6 zonal acceleration that mirrors accel_gravity_spherical_harmonics with m = 0 but evaluates ~1.5–2x faster, with agreement to <3 km over a 24 h LEO propagation when both are driven in the same Earth-fixed frame. @markusz (#302)
  • Added GravityConfiguration::EarthZonal { degree } variant and supporting ZonalHarmonicsDegree enum (J2..J6) so the numerical propagator can use the fast zonal path directly. @markusz (#302)
  • Added FrameTransformationModel (variants FullEarthRotation, EarthRotationOnly) and a frame_transform field on ForceModelConfig. EarthRotationOnly skips precession, nutation, and polar motion for ~1.5x faster ECI↔ECEF rotations at the cost of ~0.07° pole-tilt accuracy; FullEarthRotation (default) preserves prior behavior. @markusz (#302)
  • Added J3_EARTH, J4_EARTH, J5_EARTH, and J6_EARTH constants derived from EGM2008. @markusz (#302)
  • Added Python bindings for accel_earth_zonal_gravity, ZonalHarmonicsDegree, FrameTransformationModel, GravityConfiguration.earth_zonal(...), and the new J3_EARTH–J6_EARTH constants. @markusz (#302)
  • Added coefficient-derivation tests verifying each J_n_EARTH constant matches -C_n,0 * sqrt(2n + 1) against the EGM2008 fully-normalized Stokes coefficients. @markusz (#302)

Changed

  • Refined J2_EARTH to be derived from the EGM2008 C_2,0 Stokes coefficient (1.0826261738522227e-3) instead of GGM05s. Downstream values change in the 5th significant digit. @markusz (#302)
  • Reused a single ECI→body-fixed rotation per dynamics step across gravity, NRLMSISE-00 density, and drag inside DNumericalOrbitPropagator rather than recomputing the rotation per force term. @markusz (#302)
  • Update package lockfile. @duncaneddy (#306)

Removed

  • Removed rust artifact caching from CI since existing rust environment already provides (working) caching. @duncaneddy (#315)

Fixed

  • Add missing CHANGELOG.md release entries. @duncaneddy (#306)
  • Fix error with release note generation step of release workflow. @duncaneddy (#306)
  • Fix issue with awk-based release-note generation step of release workflow not populating release note contents. @duncaneddy (#306)
  • Fixed Starlink examples and documentation prose that still referenced the removed bh.datasets.celestrak / bh::datasets::celestrak API. @Mtrya (#310)
  • Fix 3rd party changes PRs not generating changelog fragments. @duncaneddy (#317)

[1.4.2] - 2026-04-23

Fixed

  • Fix brahe-py Crate not using root Cargo.toml as single-source-of-truth for package version. #298
  • Corrected format_exponential exponent offset in TLE generation (#300). BSTAR and second time derivative values are no longer 10x too small.

[1.4.1] - 2026-04-21

Changed

  • Improve documentation around versioning practices. #282
  • Add deprecation section to changelog #284
  • Bump version for v1.4.1 release #295

Fixed

  • Fix a permissions issue that pervented CHANGELOG validation from running on fork PRs #293

[1.4.0] - 2026-04-17

Added

Changed

  • Refactored repository structure to use a Rust workspace to breakup the python module from the core rust module. This pure-rust package consumers to avoid having to build the cdylib, which is only needed for python module builds. #278
  • pyo3 and numpy are now optional dependencies, activated via the python feature flag. Pure-Rust consumers that do not need the Python bindings no longer compile these crates.
  • Split the repository into a Cargo workspace so the PyO3 bindings live in a dedicated brahe-py member crate at crates/brahe-py/. The published brahe crate now builds only an rlib, eliminating the unnecessary cdylib artifact previously produced for every pure-Rust consumer. Rust downstream (use brahe::*) and Python downstream (import brahe) are unchanged.

Fixed

  • Fixed issue that would cause tests and auto-merge to not run on dependabot PRs #278

[1.3.4] - 2026-04-15

Fixed

  • Fix failing celestrak queries by migrating from celestrak.com to celestrak.org #272

[1.3.3] - 2026-04-10

Added

  • Add JD_J2000 constant to python bindings #264

[1.3.2] - 2026-04-06

Changed

  • Updated JOSS manuscript to comply with latest guidelines #256

Fixed

  • Fixed issue with SGP4 propagators erroring during parallel propagation on satellite reentry. Addressed by adding a termination_error field to SGPPropagators which will be documented and stop propagation rather than erroring all propagation. Issued with documentation builds in CI failing due to dependency changes. Fixed by updating uv.lock #256

[1.3.1] - 2026-03-29

Added

  • Added retry logic and exponential back-off to Celestrak client Added process-based rate-limiting to Celestrak client #244

Changed

  • Set default celestrak client cache age to 2 hours. #244
  • Bump version for v1.3.1 #248

Fixed

  • Pointed mike documentation deployment to use properdocs.yml #244
  • Fix mike set-default invocation to use properdocs.yml config #246

[1.3.0] - 2026-03-29

Added

  • Added python constructors for CCSDS OPM and OMM file types #225
  • Added dedicated celestrak and spacetrack submodules to the brahe CLI for querying and interfacing with space track. Added to_dict() and to_json() methods for GPRecord python module to enable easy interoperability #227
  • Added additional python test coverage #228
  • Added estimation module with support for EKF, UKF, and BLS (batched least-squares) filters Added estimation plotting routines Added implementations of magnetic field models. In particular the IGRF and WMMHR models. Added from_unix_timestamp and unix_timestamp methods to support interoperability with native unix time systems Added sponsor logo #241

Changed

  • Added additional test coverage #225
  • Renamed MJD2000 constant to MJD_J2000 to align with JD_J2000 naming #231
  • Improved documentation code samples by auto-generating, capturing, and rendering script outputs so values are guaranteed to be kept up to date. #234
  • Migrated to properdocs from mkdocs for documentation due to instability in project. #241

Fixed

  • Fixed issue with anomaly conversion CLI not properly using use_degrees #225

[1.2.0] - 2026-03-21

Added

  • Added polygon tessellation for large area access computation #199
  • Added additional benchmarks and comparisons to OreKit in benchmarks/comparisons #209
  • Add support for CCSDS OEM, OMM, OPM (blue-book) and CDM (pinkbook) types. Methods exist to load, access, modify, and create these data objects. #214
  • Add full support for XML and JSON output across OEM, OPM, and OMM files. #222

Changed

  • Have Propagators set a UUID by default Have Locations set a UUID by default Migrated default-generated UUIDs to UUIDv7 #202
  • Removed release environment flag from github release workflows Only retain last 3 minor documentation verions to prevent unbounded growth of github pages deployments. #209
  • Cleaned up space-track and celestrak documentation to improve readability and understandability #214
  • Added coverage reporting for python bindings and module #218
  • Improved CCSDS module round trip test coverage Ensures that default OEM to Trajectory conversion returns a DOrbitTrajectory so that it can immediately be used with access computation. #222

Fixed

  • Reverted compilation regression due to dependabot update. Ignored packages to prevent future regressions #194
  • Skip running CI-related tests on fork-PRs so that tests pass. #204
  • Changes access module type annotations from List to Sequence so that LSPs don't erroneously report a warning that location_accesses and other functions might mutate the list. Fix issue where python bindings for access properties would return a copy of the underlying data so mutations would not persist. Introduce AccessPropertyView so that it is now properly possible to access, set, and modify access properties in python. #206
  • Fixed issue with Gabbard plots not generating properly #218
  • Fix coverage reporting #220

[1.1.4] - 2026-03-05

Fixed

  • Fix regression from dependabot update Included type annotations in package generation #188

[1.1.3] - 2026-03-04

Added

  • Added SubdivisionConfig a subfield of AccessSearchConfig to control how subdivisions are created #181

Changed

  • Migrated to PyO3 v0.28 Update Cargo dependencies #179
  • Removed time_step parameter from internal find_access_windows method. Configuration of stepping and subdivision is now unified as a property of AccessSearchConfig #181

Fixed

  • Fixed issue in dataframe creation from dependabot update. #179

[1.1.2] - 2026-02-14

Fixed

  • Fix spacetrack client erroring out when query returns a lot of results
  • Fix spacetrack cdm_public route having wrong parent stem #169

[1.1.1] - 2026-02-14

Added

  • Added ability to configure TrajectoryMode on SGP4Propagator for applications where memory-use management is key. #167

Changed

  • The JOSS paper submission used code examples with the older celestrak API. This PR updates the code examples to use the updated, stabilized API.
  • Slightly adjust language in paper to avoid silly page overflow #165
  • Changed default interpolator used by NumericalOrbitPropgator for event detection from linear to 3rd degree Hermite. #167

Fixed

  • Make .current_epoch() property a method, not property in python bindings.
  • Fixed issue with event detection system in NumericalOrbitPropagator where it not correctly process events co-located with the current time, and would sometimes miss events in between time steps. #167

[1.1.0] - 2026-02-10

Added

  • Added par_propagate_to_d method. #109
  • Add Github issue templates for bugs and feature requests #113
  • Add arXiv citation to README and documentation. #124
  • Modified python bindings to support access computation with numerical orbit propagators. #126
  • Added spacetrack client module, enabling direct interaction with space-track.org APIs #150
  • Added BSL-1.0 to allowed dependency license list
  • Added GCAT dataset interface #152
  • Added simplified CelestrakClient interface to bridge gap between new interface and old one. #157

Changed

  • Bump version for 1.0.1 release #106
  • Renamed par_propagate_to to par_propagate_to_s
  • Move SGPPropagator to D-Type event detection. #109
  • Update documentation to add JOSS paper submission badge. #113
  • Update JOSS workflow to export tex artifacts to support arXiv upload. #122
  • Moved all Brahe errors in python bindings from OSError to BraheError to make them more distinguishable and easy to handle. #126
  • Updated JOSS paper with new required sections. #137
  • Enable manual triggering of latest documentation build in CI for handling EOP-update edge cases for releases. #139
  • Overhauled celestrak client. The celestrak client now uses a common type and query structure shared with the spacetrack module. In particular, the GPRecord serves as the common representation of OMM elements returned by both sites. This enables greater interoperability between other library modules that can consume or act on GPRecord types. The celestrak module is now it's own, stand-alone, module independent of datasets.
  • Migrate developer workflow from make.py to just
  • Remove dependency on BTreeCursor nightly feature, allowing crate to compile with stable rust. #150
  • Adjusted CelestrakQuery python bindings to properly use properties instead of methods for specific dataset queries. Example: New: CelestrakQuery.gp vs Old: CelestrakQuery.gp() #157

Fixed

  • Enabled event detection in par_propagate_to method in Python #109
  • Fixed broken documentation links in readme. (Thank you Stuart Bartlett for pointing it out) #129
  • Fix broken links in main documentation landing page. #131
  • Fix provider names for SSC stations in NASA Near Earth Network #143
  • Fix https://duncaneddy.github.io/brahe/ to redirect to the current default root URL. #147
  • Fixed tables in ephemeris documentation not being justified. #152
  • Reverted pyo3 version update due to incompatibility with numpy depdency
  • Prevented dependabot from auto-updating pyo3 #157
  • Properly pass environment secrets from the release workflow to child-workflows #159

[1.0.1] - 2025-12-04

Added

  • Added from_omm_elements to SGPPropagator. Supports direct initialization of propagator from OMM elements without needing to go through TLE lines. This is both more accurate as well as more robust to TLE ID depletion. #102
  • Add support for event detection to SGPPropagator
  • Add AOIEntryEvent and AOIExitEvent as premade event detectors. #104

Fixed

  • Fix typo in JOSS paper title #99

[1.0.0] - 2025-11-29

Added

  • {D}NumericalOrbitPropagator and python bindings
  • {D}NumericalPropagator and python bindings
  • Event detection system for numerical propagators to find events during propagation #89
  • Mean to osculating, osculating to mean orbital element transformations
  • Update OrbitStateProviders to provide state(s)_koe_mean and state(s)_koe_osc
  • Implement ECI<>ROE direct transformations
  • Add ephemeris_age to SGPPropagator
  • Implement Largrange, cubic Hermite, and quintic Hermite interpolation methods.
  • Add WalkerConstellationGenerator which enables rapidly generating propagators with walker-geometry configurations. #96

Changed

  • Make access computation use D-type propagators.
  • Standardize on
  • Add support for D-type returns to KeplerianPropagator and SGPPropagator
  • Standardized trait traits for {S|D}StateProvider, {S|D}CovarianceProvider, {S|D}StatePropagator
  • DTrajectory and DOrbitTrajectory can now store trajectories of arbitrary length
  • DTrajectory and DOrbitTrajectory can now store stm and sensitivity matricies alongside state and covariance.
  • Improved test coverage across modules
  • Changed how third-body ephemeris sources are defined and loaded. DE source is now a parameter instead of set by function name. Dynamically load BSP files when called.
  • Changed how Gravity models are defined in terms of enumeration types.
  • Renamed state_cartesian_to_osculating and state_osculating_to_cartesian as state_eci_to_koe and state_koe_to_eci #89
  • Improve trajectory module test coverage
  • Improve events module test coverage
  • Changed CI release workflow to publish documentation updates only after packages have been successfully published #96

Fixed

  • Numerical integration step and step_with_varmat now take explicit parameter values. #89

Removed

  • Removed STrajectory6 from python bindings. #89

[0.4.0] - 2025-11-28

Added

  • Add space weather data management and access modeled on Earth orientation data provider design. #73
  • Added support for control inputs to numerical integration
  • Added support for integration of sensitivity matrices to numerical integration functions
  • Added support for analytical and numerical computation of sensitivity matrix
  • Added documentation for integration with control inputs and sensitivity matrix integration
  • Added documentation for computation and handling of sensitivity matrices #78
  • Add JOSS draft paper #80
  • Added NRLMSISE-00 atmospheric density model implementation #82

Changed

  • Consolidates internal implementation of numerical integration
  • Added additional numerical integration tests to improve coverage
  • Consolidates duplicate type definitions across integrator files #78
  • Refactor celestrak.rs and naif.rs modules to use HttpClient structure to enable mocking and mock testing through mockall to make struct calls
  • Refactored main package documentation #84

Fixed

  • Auto-merge of bundled data update wasn't auto-merging #75
  • Removed erroring cache-check in python test workflow #78

[0.3.0] - 2025-11-18

Added

  • Added Integrators submodule with complete rust implementation, python bindings, documentation, and examples
  • Support for RK4, RKF45, DP54, and RKN1210 numerical integration methods
  • License validation and compliance checks. Package is now automatically checked to ensure all dependencies have permissive, commercially-adoptable licenses #63
  • NAIF Development Ephemeride dataset download and caching
  • High-accuracy DE440s-based ephemeris prediction
  • High-accuracy DE440s-based third-body acceleration prediction
  • Python bindings for orbit dynamics functions #68
  • Added geo_sma function to directly return the semi-major axis needed for a geostationary orbit. #69

Changed

  • Moved mathematics capabilities from utils submodule to dedicated math submodule.
  • Bumped version to 0.2.0 for release
  • Removed Rust test sections from coverage reporting #63
  • Orbit dynamics functions which previously required a position-only vector can now accept either a position-only or a state vector. Conversion will be handled by the IntoPosition trait. #68

Fixed

  • Fix inconsistencies in Python API reference header levels
  • Missing Ground station
  • Miscellaneous documentation improvements and fixes #63

[0.2.0] - 2025-11-17

Added

  • Added relative_motion submodule to contain functionality related to relative motion
  • Implemented RTN rotation and state transformations: rotation_eci_to_rtn, rotation_rtn_to_eci, state_eci_to_rtn, and state_rtn_to_eci
  • Implemented Relative Orbital Element (ROE) state transformations state_oe_to_roe and state_roe_to_oe
  • Added util::math functions sqrtm and spd_sqrtm to calculate matrix square root
  • Added util::math functions oe_to_radians and oe_to_degrees to reduce duplication in converting angle values in orbital element calcualtions #57
  • Implement CovarianceProvider trait for OrbitTrajectory. Provides covariance, covariance_eci, covariance_gcrf, and covariance_rtn
  • Add interpolation submodule to store consistent covariance interpolation methods
  • Implement covariance rotation from ECI to RTN frame
  • Extends OrbitTrajectory to optionally store covariance information. #59

Changed

  • Don't run PR tests on release CHANGELOG update. #49
  • Unit test and PR test workflows now cancel in-progress runs if a new commit lands
  • Added concurrency guards to auto-merge workflows. #53
  • Moved where internal vector/matrix (e.g. SMatrix3, SVector6) type aliases are defined from coordinates submodule to utils #57

Fixed

  • Don't trigger multiple changelog merges on changelog a PR. #49
  • Only trigger auto-merge on opened due to changelog PRs not issuing labeled events #51
  • Added additional triggers to auto-merge workflows to ensure they are properly triggered. #53
  • Fixed assorted typos and errors in docstrings related to covariance interpolation features. #61
  • Fixes package-data update CI workflow by moving to auto-PR, auto-merge approach #64

[0.1.3] - 2025-11-12

Added

  • Added python missing bindings for states_icrf and states_gcrf for KeplerianPropagator and SGPPropagator
  • Added additional tests across various module to improve test coverage. #36

Changed

  • Refactor frames.rs file into submodule with subfiles for long-term maintainability. #14
  • Automatically create and merge PRs for changelog updates #16
  • Auto-merge changelog PRs
  • Auto-merge dependabot PRs
  • Expand dependabot to cover python and rust packages #26
  • Bump package version to v0.1.3 #34
  • Skip unit test suite on auto-generated changelog PRs. #44

Fixed

  • PR changelogs were not being incorporated into the package changelog due to main-branch protection #16
  • Stop generation changelog PRs for auto-generated changelog PRs #26
  • Fixed issue with release pipeline release note generation #38
  • Fix auto-merge for changelog PRs by using PAT #40
  • Fix auto-merge workflow to accept PAT owner as actor. #42
  • Fix workflow release step to use workflow PAT and declare base branch #46