Tag Archive: progenymk7-a1

Although the original goals of the Progenitor program ended at reaching space, the decision was made to attempt to create an alternative means of reaching orbit for smaller payloads that could be cheaper than a larger Ascension rocket and faster than having to wait for multiple small satellites to travel up together in order to justify the launch. The Mk7 series of rockets will aim to achieve this goal through incremental design just as the previous Progeny rockets worked their way up into space. Along the way they will test new technologies to apply to Ascension rockets. The first flight of the first design iteration, the Mk7-A, set out to see how well the rocket could handle a maximum thrust ascent while testing new guidance fins and a vectoring engine.

The Flight

After some modifications were needed to the launch pad support arms and the rocket’s umbilical connection ports, the rocket was rolled out for a second time and hooked up one day in advance of the original launch time on Thursday, June 20th. However news from the downrange tracking station in Ockr caused us to scrub the launch when the relay antenna setup for allowing the rocket to stay in contact with KSC through chute deployment failed to test well. The relay was fixed over the weekend and the launch went off as rescheduled for June 24th.

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