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Category Archive: News
What's going on at the Kerbal Space Agency
Oct 18 2019
Operations Summary – Week of 10/14/19
Oct 01 2019
Ascension Mk1 Flight 9 Analysis
The second kerbed mission would see Commander Valentina become the second kerbal to venture up into space. Lessons learned both from Specialists Bill’s flight and the more recent unkerbed Mk1 mission were applied to the mission planning to make this the most on-target ascent to date for the Ascension Mk1. In the weeks leading up to the launch Val and her backup crew member Captain Jebediah trained together for the mission and in the days leading up to the launch they both were sequestered inside the Astronaut Complex as per the quarantine protocol that was established with the first kerbed mission. This once again helped to ensure the astronauts remained healthy, allowed medical doctors to draw baseline observations and gave both crew some much-needed downtime. Come launch day, both were refreshed and ready. Jeb remained suited up on standby while Val boarded the capsule and was ultimately not required to replace her for the mission as pre-launch operations proceeded smoothly.
The Flight
The scheduled launch at 13:10 local time was met with a good ignition of the K2-X lifter engine, producing 125kN of thrust to push the rocket gently off the pad at 1.2 TWR, taking 3 seconds to rise up and clear the service towers before throttling up to near full thrust to hold a TWR of 1.65 for a comfortable ascent. At this time also the guidance routine kicked in to roll the rocket on a heading of 54° while beginning to pitch over and head downrange. Aboard, Val was dutifully calling out regular readings from her instruments so ground controllers could ensure that everything was operating correctly.
Sep 12 2019
Ascension Mk1 Flight 8 Analysis
Now that we have the ability to launch actual kerbals into space, the unkerbed capsule no longer had to be a testbed for kerbed flight and was stripped of its control console and life support system. This made the interior much more spacious and capable of holding larger science equipment. Furthermore the hatch was modified so that it could be remotely opened and closed, which allowed for instruments inside the capsule to directly sample the space environment. We put this to good use in testing three of the Exremis probe instruments that had yet to see actual flight conditions: the magnetometer (mag), radio & plasma wave science (RPWS) and gamma-ray spectrometer (GRS). The RPWS and GRS were installed inside the capsule on a rotating column so each could be faced out the open door in turn over the course of the mission. The mag boom was originally supposed to go inside as well but miscommunication between the scientists & Ascension engineers meant it was built too large. Thankfully its slim profile while folded allowed it to be mounted externally on the fuel tank without too much fear of it being ripped off during ascent.
The Flight
On the day of the originally-scheduled launch, our recovery vessel MSV Aldeny radioed through the Ockr relay that conditions at the planned landing zone were too poor for safe operations. It was later forced to move off station entirely to find calmer waters and was not able to return until the end of the day. Thankfully conditions continued to remain good into the following day and although they slightly degraded here at KSC preparations were still undertaken to attempt a launch.
KSA Main Image Gallery
