Skip to content

Install GMAT

gmat-run does not ship GMAT binaries. Install GMAT separately from gmat.gsfc.nasa.gov or directly from SourceForge.

If you're running gmat-run in GitHub Actions, see Run gmat-run in your CI instead — setup-gmat handles the install for you.

Supported versions

GMAT version Status
R2026a Primary development target; exercised on every PR (Ubuntu + Windows + macOS, Python 3.10/3.11/3.12).
R2025a Supported; exercised on every PR (Ubuntu + Windows + macOS, Python 3.10/3.11/3.12).
R2022a Best-effort; not exercised in CI (Python 3.9 ABI floor; see known limitations).
Earlier Not supported. gmatpy ships per-Python-minor shared libraries; older releases predate Python 3.10.

Windows

  1. Download the Windows zip from SourceForge (e.g. gmat-win-R2026a.zip).
  2. Extract anywhere — C:\Program Files\GMAT-R2026a\ is typical.
  3. gmat-run discovers installs under C:\Program Files\GMAT* and C:\Program Files (x86)\GMAT* automatically.

Linux

  1. Download the Linux tarball (e.g. gmat-ubuntu-x64-R2026a.tar.gz).
  2. Extract anywhere — ~/gmat-R2026a/ or /opt/gmat-R2026a/ is typical.
  3. gmat-run discovers installs matching ~/gmat-* and /opt/gmat-* automatically.

macOS

  1. Download the macOS package from SourceForge.
  2. Install into /Applications/GMAT-R2026a/ or similar.
  3. gmat-run discovers installs under /Applications/GMAT* automatically.

Custom location

If your install lives elsewhere, point gmat-run at it explicitly:

mission = Mission.load("flyby.script", gmat_root="/path/to/gmat-R2026a")

Or set the GMAT_ROOT environment variable, which gmat-run honours globally:

export GMAT_ROOT=/path/to/gmat-R2026a

Verifying the install

from gmat_run import locate_gmat

install = locate_gmat()
print(install.root, install.version)

If discovery fails, GmatNotFoundError lists every search location it tried and why each was rejected — paste that output verbatim when filing an install issue.

API startup file

On first use, gmat-run generates <install>/bin/api_startup_file.txt by running <install>/api/BuildApiStartupFile.py. This is automatic — no manual step is needed.