Deuce Flight Trial 9

a nice easy touchdown and full stop nearly the length of the runway as he did not use full thrust after reversing the propellers and relied more on the wheel brakes. Engines have been shut down on the runway, we'll tow the Deuce back to the HAB for engineers to look over

looks like Genesis isn't the only program having a bad day - Progenitor has announced a structural problem with the 0.35->0.625m adapter was discovered during final checkouts. Launch has been delayed, now targeting 1/23 @ 19:42 UTC

engine inspections continue for the Deuce, C7 says they are hoping to run down the problem in time to still wrap up flight testing tomorrow now that the rocket launch has been delayed

Lead Engineer Simon and Specialist Bill have both been lending a hand getting the Deuce engines reassembled, test flight later today still looking viable as long as weather holds

Deuce is ready to fly and is being fueled to max capacity - so far it has only flown with half the amount of total fuel it can carry, now it's time to see if it can takeoff with a full load: 2 tons worth! (that's Jool to the east)

Captain Jeb is once again flying solo, completing preflight with help from Commander Val. Winds are light so he'll be taking off from Runway 27 to have the most room available to stop should the aircraft not be able to lift off. We've removed the runway blocks on the other end

lined up, cleared for takeoff - here we go! Throttles to full, Jeb will let them runup a bit before releasing the brakes and starting his roll, said he could feel the weight difference even when he was taxiing

traveling the length of the runway, full-back on the yoke at 86m/s the Deuce slowly got off the ground - Jeb was worried for a minute that the climb would not be sustainable but he's holding 10° pitch at 80-85m/s and is maintaining positive rate. He will attempt to reach 2.5km

it was a slow climb but Jeb has reached 2.5km and leveled off, a great initial altitude for a full fuel load & Deuce is still cruising nicely at ~130m/s with full thrust. Now comes the next test - getting back down while still heavy

maintaining 2.5km to log a good set of performance data, Jeb has cruised back to within 30km of KSC and has cut throttle to begin his descent to land, looking to approach only slightly slower than his takeoff speed

well, Deuce certainly had no problem settling on the runway! Landing was smooth and gear had no issues with the increased load. Jeb is taxiing to the HAB where we will offload a good portion of the fuel before he heads back out for the final planned flight test

now 1.298t lighter, Jeb is taking the Deuce back out to Runway 27. He will depart, climb to 2.5km out over the bay to the north and then shut off one of his engines (intentionally this time!)

left engine has been shut down and feathered, Jeb reports yaw trim is set and roll compensated - everything behaving just as it should! Of course, once again comes the additional challenge: can he land??

Jeb had Flight vector him out for a long final, he's now lined up at 17km and getting a feel for the throttle response from the single engine to control his approach, working hard on the rudder to keep things straight. Rescue & recovery ship is deployed and standing by

that was pretty awesome! A very weird sight to see, as photographed from Flight Control. No issues on the approach or landing - proving this engine redundancy is a big win over the Civvie for flights across large stretches of open water

with a successful end to initial flight trials C7 will spend weeks pouring over reams of test data, but results are so promising they've already scheduled it for a Public Relations tour starting next week to also gather additional data

the lack of a rocket launch has made this past week no less exciting, that's for sure. Catch up on all that happened along with additional information via bit.ly/OpsSummary1-15…