Operations Summary – Week of 6/11/18

Preliminary Ascension Mk1 Report

This past week the test weight and the rocket engine were identified in scans of the sea floor and raised by the salvage ship to be returned to us at KSC. The fuel tank and its accompanying parts were nowhere to be found, at least in pieces large enough to be detected among the surface scatter at the bottom of the ocean. Upon setting eyes on the test weight it was pretty clear that the rocket had failed to deploy its parachutes successfully given the nose of the weight was almost completely caved inwards from impact. A look at the operations log showed that the AFCS crashed when attempting to deploy the parachutes and they were likely never used. The rocket crashed nose-first into the ocean at just over 300m/s but the test weight was built to handle impacts of over 500m/s with the instruments all huddled in the base. The fuel tanks would have still been pressurized on impact and thus exploded, but the engine would not have hit bell-first and we can therefore examine that part to determine why it failed during ascent. Video footage from the booster camera has turned out to be extremely poor for some reason and technicians are working to extract what still images they can from it. Full details on the flight will be published next week after further investigations.

The launch pad and accompanying service equipment also received an inspection this past week to determine if any damage occurred during launch. Nothing was found and now crews will spend the next two weeks refurbishing the equipment to ensure it functions just as well for the next launch in July.

Progeny Mk6 Block II Preps for Debut Flight

The date has been set! Our first attempt at launching the Progeny Mk6 Block II will be on 6/20 @ 16:03 UTC. The rocket was stacked vertical in the VAB today for the first time and will be monitored over the weekend to ensure all decouplers and adapters are handling the weight properly before being laid out horizontal on Monday for final checkouts. It will be rolled out to the pad on Tuesday and mounted to the launch base, which is also in the VAB right now being fortified to handle the greater mass of the Block II. Depending on whether we are able to successfully recover this rocket, the next launch could be as early as 6/26, but if we are forced to order new parts that date will be pushed back. Although getting to orbit with the Ascension Mk1 is exciting, everyone is just as pumped for this launch because the Progeny Mk6 Block II is actually the most complex of our current rockets.

Genesis & Progenitor Confirm Aerial Launch Attempt

Just over a year since it was first proposed, the two programs will finally pair up to attempt to launch a small Progeny Mk1-B rocket from the back of a Deuce next week. The first test will be a simple captive carry and release in which the aircraft, under the command of new Flight Officers Tedman and Aldeny, will carry the rocket aloft to see how high the aircraft can get. Once there, if all is going well, controllers on the ground will command the rocket to be released after the pilots take a dive and climb back upwards at an angle. The rocket will not ignite, but the parachute will deploy a short time later and land it for recovery near the KSC. After studying how the rocket behaves once it is released, the decision will be made whether to make another flight and this time fire off the rocket.

KerBalloon Brings Home the Funds

Genesis, Ascension and Progenitor are all still rather bogged down in R&D, running missions without much return and sometimes with no return. KerBalloon continues to provide actual sustainable income for the KSA thanks to its ability to keep mission costs down with tried and true technology. It had its own mis-steps in the beginning but has matured quickly thanks to its lower-tech. This past week saw two missions carried out although only one was originally planned. When an unusually strong storm formed out at sea a snap request by field researchers in conjunction with the Maritime Weather Service came in to deploy a high-altitude balloon before the system dissipated. Following that mission, the one that it bumped was carried out just today and is still in progress so expect a final update once UTV crews make it back to KSC.

Alaba Mun Encounter #9

This past weekend our moonlet Alaba took another swing through Mun’s SOI. Once again it was out of view from telescopes on the ground but shortly afterwards became visible for observations. Astronomers have determined their predictions this time were within 5 seconds of SOI entry as opposed to within 10 seconds for the previous encounter. Better! Since Alaba was not set to immediately re-enter Mun’s SOI they pushed out another 3-encounter prediction and came up with the dates 7/11, 7/29 & 8/18. After that it seems to enter into a stable period that lasts until at least May 2019, which was the furthest ahead they looked. This does seem to match with one of their earlier predictions that, although not quite correct, does show a similar stable period.

Did you know if you look back through Alaba’s history in the Ops Tracker you can see how its orbit migrates over time? We’ve also worked up a new visualization that shows this movement.

ATN Database

The weekly update for the Asteroid Tracking Network database is available here, containing 2,080 asteroids and 5 updated with new observation data.

Celestial Snapshot of the Week

Commander Val was out stargazing with Specialist Bob and took a photo of the western sky, with KSC lit by an almost-full Mun. Sarnus is up top and working down we can see Urlum, Neidon and Eve.

From the Desk of Drew Kerman