Design of aerospace vehicles for atmospheric transit to and from space. Generic formulation of atmospheric flight dynamics. Ballistic and lifting entry trajectories. Estimation of vehicle aerodynamic properties and aerothermodynamic heating. Entry thermal protection design. Trajectory analysis of sounding rockets and orbital launch vehicles. Serial, parallel, and hybrid multistaging schemes, optimal multistaging. Constrained trajectory optimization. Launch vehicle economic and reliability analysis, flight termination systems, sensors and actuators.