Now that landing is mostly proven, Commander Valentina will dedicate some flight time to climb to max altitude & perform stall maneuvers
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Kerbal Space Agency
@KSA_MissionCtrl
still a beautiful day for flying. C7 has agreed to cover the operations overtime for 1 more flight, their engineers are craving more data
Kerbal Space Agency
@KSA_MissionCtrl
this flight will finally see some additional performance testing - Val will climb to operational ceiling of 4.5km & also perform some stalls
Kerbal Space Agency
@KSA_MissionCtrl
Val has departed to the west. Civvie can't climb much faster than 5m/s so it will take her at least 15 min to reach target altitude of 4.5km
Kerbal Space Agency
@KSA_MissionCtrl
just clearing 3km the climb rate has slowed to 2m/s. This is engine power only, no pitch, to get important data on engine performance
Kerbal Space Agency
@KSA_MissionCtrl
odometer on this flight has just passed 100km, a new milestone! We measure flight dst/time from takeoff roll start to landing roll end
Kerbal Space Agency
@KSA_MissionCtrl
still climbing... even if Civvie could fly higher than 4.5km Val has no helmet & cabin is not pressurized, so it wouldn't be possible anyway
Kerbal Space Agency
@KSA_MissionCtrl
Civvie's natural climb at full throttle has leveled off at 4.4km - excellent! Val now has approval from Flight to do some stalls & recovery
Kerbal Space Agency
@KSA_MissionCtrl
Civvie behaves extremely well in a stall, naturally going into a dive for easy recovery. Val happy to descend, it's chilly up there! (~28°F)
Kerbal Space Agency
@KSA_MissionCtrl
Val has spiraled down over the Grasslands to 1.6km and is now flying east, south of KSC, to set up for her normal pattern entry for landing
Kerbal Space Agency
@KSA_MissionCtrl
launch control has cleared Val for landing Rwy09. Slight crosswind from NE, only 2-4kts. She's on final approach & Bill says she looks good
Kerbal Space Agency
@KSA_MissionCtrl
Val still came in too fast, but a bit slower than last time & had a smoother landing - except a wind gust that almost slewed her off runway
Kerbal Space Agency
@KSA_MissionCtrl
for once, Civvie gets to stay out of the HAB after flight, will be ready for Cpt Jeb tomorrow! Saving on deployment costs also a win 🙂
Kerbal Space Agency
@KSA_MissionCtrl
today's final flight set new records for duration (01:00:16) & distance traveled (288km) - check them & more at bit.ly/KSARecords
Kerbal Space Agency
@KSA_MissionCtrl
here's some more analysis from Val's flight yesterday. This is the big picture. You can see where she worked stalls and spiraled her descent
Kerbal Space Agency
@KSA_MissionCtrl
here's the landing that went off almost without a hitch - that wind gust came out of nowhere really, winds were pretty steady all day
Kerbal Space Agency
@KSA_MissionCtrl
finally this is the data collected during her stalls and recoveries. Very nice curves, no tumbling out of the sky 🙂 Each pixel = 1 sec
Kerbal Space Agency
@KSA_MissionCtrl
it has been brought to our attention that our flight track diagrams aren't very colorblind-friendly. This will be corrected for future imgs
Kerbal Space Agency
@KSA_MissionCtrl
that's it! We're out! Everyone enjoy the holiday, see you next year! Before you go though, here's a 2017 preview: bit.ly/OpsSummary12-1…
