Progeny Mk1-B Airlaunch

we have successful recovery of the rocket, now on its way back to shore as the Deuce taxis back to the HAB after a smooth landing. Excellent work everyone! Data from today's mission will be reviewed today and tomorrow to make the final decision on whether to attempt launch on Fri

review of the aircraft flight data shows no issues. Ted had command while Aldy stood ready to back him up with his side in the event of any control failure but Ted flew a perfect maneuver, leveling back off at 7km after the release and stall out

Lead Engineer Simon reports that the Mk1-B checks out in good condition after its splashdown, has its chute repacked & nose cone reinstalled. It will be mounted back on the Deuce later today. Mounting vehicle is standing by & Civvie is rolled out for flight in the following hour

Aldy is rolling out of a smooth landing on the runway, will taxi back to the HAB to park on the grass next to the Deuce, which now has the Mk1-B strapped back on. No word yet from the Progenitor team as to whether we will go ahead with the launch attempt tomorrow

Flight Director Lanalye has just concluded the briefing for today's aerial launch attempt. Flight crew is heading out to the aircraft while controllers hop on to their consoles. Here is a look at what is in store and here you can review all the events since mid-2017 that led up to this mission www.kerbalspace.agency

while we would like to have a chase plane, a Civvie cannot fly that high and we were unable to borrow any of the few other Deuce aircraft in service elsewhere. We will have a camera on the ground at KSC try to capture what it can in addition to the onboard cameras

flight crew are aboard and working through preflight. (L to R) Tedman & Aldeny, Captain and First Officer respectively for this flight, will be putting all their practice runs to the test today at last. They posed by the aircraft earlier as the sun came up before climbing aboard

Deuce is fired up and reports ready for taxi, controllers report the rocket is woke and sending through good telemetry with nominal power levels. It runs on the aircraft's batteries/alternator until it detaches much like being hooked up to a launch base on the ground

we remain blessed with great weather, mostly sunny skies & calm winds - though once the aircraft gets higher up that could change but we will check that later. For now, Ted has begun the takeoff roll down Rwy27 as Aldy confirms his readouts for the rocket match Flight controllers

passing through 3.5km Aldy reports they're picking up some winds out of the southwest. Flight is vectoring them around the mountains to the northeast so they can approach the drop point into the wind. Deuce continues to climb steadily ~10m/s at full throttle

coming up on 7km ASL, release altitude, Ted will level off and hold heading to allow Aldy to work with Flight to interpret wind data being collected by the aircraft and determine how they will approach the drop point

Deuce has come about and is setup on its approach to the drop point. Winds have been found to be within constraints and final checks are now underway, only ~5 minutes remain until the release maneuver

all systems GO! Tedman and Aldeny have been cleared by FD Lanalye to proceed with release maneuver at their own discretion. Real-time rocket status can be viewed on our Ops Tracker. Standby! ops.kerbalspace.agency/?vessel=progen…

we have had a successful flight of the Mk1-B along with successful stall recovery of the Deuce! Rocket parachute has been pre-deployed at 5km to prevent it from nose-diving towards the ground as the booster remains attached with its angled fins. Rocket apokee was 16.399km

Deuce has begun its descent to land via Rwy09, is well clear of the descending rocket. MSV Lymun has already gotten underway towards the projected splashdown location

Tad & Aldy have landed and Lymun is still fishing the rocket out of the water but reports that it landed without issue after fully deploying its parachute past 800m. Congratulations everyone!! 🥂✨🎊 a fabulous way to cap off the operational year

full review of today's launch will not come until after we return to operations next year but we won't leave you all with nothing 🙂 Here is a look at the release and ascent from the ground and onboard cameras. Fwoooosh!! 🚀 youtube.com/watch?v=oDpjA1…

here is the full report on the preparation and execution of launching a Progeny Mk1-B rocket off the back of the Deuce: kerbalspace.agency/?p=8264

tl;dr - concept proven feasible, but not a useful means of getting to space with our current availability in aircraft or rocket technology, not to mention lack of any commercial support. Is a model we will definitely be keeping in mind for all future missions however