Ascension Mk1 Flight 14 (Specialist Bob)

astronauts took time from their busy schedule to visit a school in Umbarg as part of their educational outreach. One kerbling asked what happens if you peed in your space suit. Bob promised him he would find out. Such bold frontiers to explore!

RT @Tmccreight25:  A spacewalk is definitely an interesting idea, but i don't like the thought of a Kerbal exiting their capsule whilst on a ballistic trajectory... gives me horrible visions of them being unable to return  to the spacecraft and seal the hatch before reentry cooks them alive...

yes, we feel the pressure waiting for the Mk1 flight report to be released but you can't rush these things. Hopefully next week we will know if the Mk2 mission is approved! Until then, read more about what happened this past week in our Ops Summary: kerbalspace.agency/?p=10366

at least some good news to come out of today: the newest K2-X engine was hooked up to the test stand & underwent successful static fire. It will be moved back to the VAB tomorrow to begin integration w/ flight hardware for March's mission. Horizontal stand awaits Boosterton II

K2-X engine for Specialist Bob's mission in April has been delivered for final inspection, along with static fire testing next month. This is the 2nd of 3 arriving in this first quarter of the year, with 3 more in Q3 that should hold us until the new lifter engine is completed

a historic month draws to a close. Recap the Kerbin I mission, learn more about our upcoming missions and what else transpired this past week over at the Ops Summary: kerbalspace.agency/?p=10499

Also, now all the parties
🎆🎉🎊🎇

the K2-X engine for Spc Bob's mission had a successful static fire out on the vertical test stand today. We continue to target an early April launch to get our last astronaut aboard a rocket and have a space ribbon pinned on them afterwards

a bummer that we were unable to return to kerbed space flight this week but heads are up and looking forward to next week's attempt! More on that and everything else that transpired this week in our Ops Summary: kerbalspace.agency/?p=10765

💫 KERZZAH! ☀ - 12 times we have now traveled around Kerbol since the KSA was founded - at 1,025,316,660.821km distance traveled we are just 3 light minutes shy of a light hour's travel time over the same distance. Spaceship Kerbin is tooling along at a constant 9.28km/s

Lead Engineer Simon reports the engine for Jeb's rocket developed a bad fuel flow sensor in the time between static fire and launch. They will replace the part, seek higher quality from the manufacturer, and have the engine ready again for Bob's mission in April

TL;DR - several recent minor oversights both in the rocketry & aircraft programs have begun to worry upper management that we are on course to make a catastrophic error in a future mission. Time to slow down before a major oversight occurs with horrible consequences

Operations Director @DKerman_KSA rejected Lead Engineer Simon's resignation today. He may have made mistakes but this just shows he is willing to accept them and we expect him to move forward with us and make the most of the experience he has gained over the past 3+ years

things will be slowing down for a while, but we do expect to clear out the backlog quickly starting Jun/Jul to remain as close as possible to our projections made at the start of the year. We waited to hear of more Chikelu news but nothing yet kerbalspace.agency/?p=10850

final major hurdle in getting back to rocket flight has been cleared with the full review & analysis of the orbital Kerbin I mission completed kerbalspace.agency/?p=10905 Now Progenitor & Ascension teams will spend May on upcoming mission plans

events late last week postponed our bi-weekly Ops Summary to allow us to share better details, unfortunately the news from USI is not good & has temporarily suspended Progeny launches. Ascension looking better, but still behind sched. More details: kerbalspace.agency/?p=10993

we're ramping rocket operations back up! Sadly Progenitor remains sidelined but Ascension is free to fly and we have three launches in the queue:

6/23 @ TBD - Mk1 (unkerbed)
7/16 @ TBD - Mk1 (Spc Bob)
TBD August - Mk2

Save the dates! More details in the coming days 🚀✨

work is all set to resume in the VAB next week. Progeny Mk7-B assembly atop the 4 boosters will continue while we await launch permission. This month's rocket just needs to be stacked for final closeouts. Bob's ride still has a lot of prep for next month

Flight Director Lanalye has been in Launch Control drilling the Launch Team B hard all week. Normally handling Progeny flights, they need to be brought up to speed on Ascension operations. Launch Team A is prepping in the Astronaut Complex to manage Bob's mission next month

with rocketry programs ramping back up we're switching back to the weekly Ops Summary format to make sure you get all the infos. If you think you may have missed anything or want more expansive details on out operations, check it out - kerbalspace.agency/?p=11043

low-alt crew have shipped out aboard MSV Lymun to head for bit.ly/Area_G0-XK8 & will return next week. We'd save some funds by letting them use our own ship MSV Aldeny but that's needed here so Bill & Bob can begin working their water recovery drills for July's mission

everyone is already looking forward to sending the last of our crew up into space and now the mission details are available on the Ops Tracker: ops.kerbalspace.agency. The timing of this mission could let Bob see something from space no kerbal has seen before

this was an exciting week, make sure you didn't miss anything by check out our weekly Ops Summary on the website, where we have some speculation on the USI sale. We hope everyone has a relaxing weekend! kerbalspace.agency/?p=11062

If they can get out in time, their pressurized suit can help keep them afloat

the Mk1-A capsule was stacked atop the lifter stage earlier today in the VAB so the rocket can undergo load checks & ensure the decoupler/interstage shroud are properly manufactured. Then the rocket will be lowered horizontal for final close outs to complete by Friday

the Ops Summary is back and we will try to stick to the weekly format again moving forward. Learn more details about what went down these past two weeks and catch anything you may have missed: kerbalspace.agency/?p=11093

Specialists Bob & Bill have both been settled into quarantine in the Astronaut Complex, where they will be monitored by medical teams while relaxing after their vigorous training. Not just to prevent sickness, also to get a good baseline medical reading prior to spaceflight

#DYK this upcoming kerbed mission will be nearly 1 year to the day from when we tried to launch Bob into space? He was supposed to be the first! However events did not go in his favor - you can recap the whole mission that made Bill 1st in space here: kerbalspace.agency/Tracker/tracke…

medical team reports the crew remain healthy and are sleeping well. They usually take this time to work on personal projects. Bill is building a simple radio receiver that will let kerblings hear Kerbin II while Bob works on coding a new integrator with our astrodynamics team

crew have had their final pre-mission visit with family, Katgan forecasts 75% favorable weather & all other launch readiness reports have been reviewed & signed off on by @DKerman_KSA. We are 🚀 GO 🚀 for launch attempt tomorrow! Pre-launch ops begin @ 11:54 UTC

it was a ~22km hike from his capsule to the shore but Bob made it okay - all that wilderness survival training finally coming in handy. Aldeny crew was there to greet him, he's now heading aboard to sail back to Sheltered Rock. They will arrive in port tomorrow

MSV Aldeny has pulled into port at Sheltered Rock and Bob will be given a full medical exam tomorrow. Capsule is still there as well and will be shipped the rest of the way back to KSC for post-flight inspection next week. This was its second flight

we've now sent all 4 of our crew up into space. To think that just over 3 years ago they were all only dreaming of the possibility. The Progeny Mk3 rocket seen launching in this photo still hadn't even made it to the upper atmosphere yet!

how did we recover the capsule with an airship? We tested a similar method over water #OTD back in 2018 and since then have perfected the procedure and kept it in our back pocket for use when needed over land or sea twitter.com/KSA_MissionCtr…

to get an idea of just how much panic was caused by Bob's initial ascent (red) compare it to the trajectory he was supposed to fly (green). Had the rocket not recovered and shown to hold good AoA and keep nose at or above 45°, abort would have been triggered by controllers

back at KSC now, Bob enjoyed his time off and hero's parade through his home cavern of Kravass along with a phone call from the Presider. He's amped up to get working with the rest of the crew to prepare for a longer stay in space next year - orbit! (either him or Val to be 1st)

all 4 crew's sub-orbital re-entry profiles. Bill was 1st so most conservative. Val then Jeb were next, Bob's mission went the highest. Bob was the only one who blacked out - the final flight report will attempt to determine the cause. Bumps after max G are chute deployments

Specialist Bob has submitted to rigorous medical testing this past week as physicians work to determine why he was the only one who blacked out on re-entry when centrifuge exercises showed he should have been able to handle the G load that was similar to Val & Jeb's returns

astronauts are at our Umbarg HQ to begin more runs in the centrifuge, carrying on over the next week as research continues to study the effects of high G loads during re-entry, now with even more data to apply from Bob's recent mission