APP · IPHONE + IPAD + ANDROID · COMING SOON
A rocket engine in your hands.
VorteX is a 3D rocket engine simulator for iPhone, iPad and Android phones, made for space and rocket enthusiasts. Press Ignite, watch it roar to life, then throttle it, steer it and look inside.
- Platform
- iPhone, iPad + Android phones
- Release
- Coming soon to the App Store and Google Play
- Price
- Free · Pro US$4.99, one-time
- Privacy
- Data Not Collected
Why we made it
A launch stream shows you the outside of a rocket: the countdown, the flame, the climb. The engine doing all the work stays hidden.
Space and rocket fans want more than that. They want to start an engine themselves, see what happens as it starts up, and get up close to the parts. VorteX puts that engine on your phone, without hype and without borrowing anyone else's hardware.
What it does
Light it. Run it. Look inside.
Press Ignite
Watch the start sequence play out: chill-down, preburners, ignition and mainstage, with a roaring exhaust plume, glowing shock diamonds and synthesised engine sound.
Live readings
Thrust, chamber pressure, specific impulse, exhaust velocity, propellant flows, exit pressure and pump speeds, updating as the engine runs.
Frost and vapour
Frost forms on the cryogenic lines, and heavy cold vapour spills from the pipes and the nozzle.
Throttle it
Switch between 70% and 100% and watch the plume respond. With Pro, slide anywhere from 40% to 100%, with haptic rumble that follows thrust.
Steer it
With Pro, a gimbal pad tilts the engine up to 15°, and a one-tap Centre button brings it back.
Climb
With Pro, an altitude slider takes you from sea level to near vacuum, and the plume balloons as you climb.
Every view
Front and Three-quarter views with pinch-to-zoom come free. Pro adds free rotation, all six camera views and auto-orbit.
Life-size AR
With Pro, stand the 3.3 m engine on your floor and walk around it (Apple's AR Quick Look on iPhone and iPad; AR on Android may differ).
How it works
From chill-down to shutdown.
Every run follows the same sequence a real engine does, simplified and fully original.
01
Press Ignite
The engine chills down, the preburners light, and it climbs to mainstage in front of you.
02
Run it
Throttle up and down, steer with the gimbal and climb towards vacuum. The plume and the readings respond as you go.
03
Look inside
Switch to X-ray or cutaway, turn on the flow field, and tap any part to find out what it does.
04
Shut it down
Press Shutdown to watch the cut-off sequence, then light it again whenever you like.
Look inside
See what the engine is doing.
VorteX Pro opens up the inside of the engine, live while it runs.
VorteX Pro
Mach inside the nozzle
See the nozzle flow field on a cut plane: Mach number, temperature, pressure and velocity, live as you throttle.
VorteX Pro
Propellant flow
Liquid oxygen, liquid methane and preburner gas glow as they move through every line.
VorteX Pro
Tap any part
Switch to solid, X-ray or cutaway, and tap a part for engineering notes on the turbopumps, preburners, injector, chamber, throat and nozzle.
VorteX Pro
The Cycle tab
An interactive full-flow staged-combustion diagram. Tap any component to highlight it on the engine.
iPad
Bigger engine, same controls.
On iPad the engine gets the whole screen, with the controls and readings alongside.
Free and Pro
Free, and complete
- A detailed 3D engine in Front and Three-quarter views, with pinch-to-zoom
- Ignite and shut down, with the full start and cut-off sequence
- Throttle at 70% and 100%
- Live engine readings
- Frost on the cryogenic lines and cold vapour
VorteX Pro · US$4.99, one-time
- Rotate it, every view: free rotation, six camera views and auto-orbit
- Full throttle range: 40% to 100%, with haptic rumble that follows thrust
- Gimbal steering up to 15°, with a one-tap Centre
- See inside: the nozzle flow field and propellant flow
- Cutaway, X-ray and part notes on every component
- Altitude: sea level to near vacuum, with the plume responding
- The Cycle tab
- Life-size AR: stand the 3.3 m engine on your floor
VorteX Pro is a single one-time purchase. No subscription, no ads and no account. Restore it any time from the Pro screen, signed in with the same Apple Account or Google Account you bought it with. Prices are shown in the App Store and Google Play and vary by region. Figures come from a simplified physics model and are illustrative, not engineering data. AR needs a physical iPhone or iPad; AR on Android may differ.
Our approach
One engine, done properly.
VorteX 1.0 has one engine: a generic full-flow staged-combustion methalox design. The 3D model, animations and sound are all original and simplified. It isn't a copy of any real engine.
Honest numbers.
The live readings come from a simplified physics model. They're labelled as illustrative, not engineering data.
Private by design.
The 3D engine runs entirely on your device, offline. No account, no sign-in, no analytics, no ads and no tracking.
Clear about what's free.
The free app is complete. Locked controls show a PRO badge, so you always know what's included.
On launch night
The stream on one screen. Your engine on the other.
During the long holds before a launch, open VorteX and fire an engine of your own. VorteX's engine is a generic design, not affiliated with any launch provider.
Privacy
VorteX collects no data.
No account, no analytics, no ads, no tracking and no third-party SDKs. The engine runs on your device, offline. The camera is used only for the AR view, and the image is never recorded, saved or sent.
Coming soon
Coming soon to the App Store and Google Play.
VorteX is free to download, and VorteX Pro is a one-time US$4.99 upgrade. 1.0 is where we start, and every update will list exactly what changed.