Category Archive: News

What's going on at the Kerbal Space Agency

Nov 08 2019

Operations Summary – Week of 11/4/19

View post on imgur.com

View operations details »

Oct 24 2019

KSA Suffers Deadly Attack on Kerbed Space Mission

Click for annotated version

Earlier this week during the pre-launch operations leading up to the 3rd kerbed space mission, at approximately 16:17 UTC after tanking operations had completed and pre-flight was well underway, a Deuce aircraft came gliding in out of the darkness and slammed into the rocket. The impact was almost right in the center of the fuel tank by the aircraft’s outer left wing, causing a huge explosion. The aircraft was spun flatly around and slammed into the ground about a dozen meters away where its own fuel tanks crumpled and exploded as well. As soon at the wing penetrated the rocket fuel tank exterior however, this severed the continuity wires and triggered the automated Launch Abort System, firing the rockets in the escape tower atop the capsule to send it up and away from the resulting explosion. The chutes deployed shortly afterwards and the capsule landed hard but without injury to the occupant, Captain Jebediah, roughly 800m from the launch pad, which had gradually become engulfed in a raging ground fire as fuel and oxidizer continued to burn off. Emergency crews rushed to the scene in order to help rescue any survivors of the launch pad crew that were still working during the explosion but were unable to get close enough to fight the fire and found no one on the periphery. The 12 dead pad workers is the greatest loss of life on a KSA mission to date.

Read the rest of this entry »

Jul 12 2019

Operations Summary – Week of 7/8/19

View post on imgur.com

View operations details »

May 03 2019

Operations Summary – Week of 4/29/19

View post on imgur.com

View operations details »

Apr 26 2019

Operations Summary – Week of 4/22/19

View post on imgur.com

View operations details »

Mar 29 2019

Operations Summary – Week of 3/25/19

View post on imgur.com

View operations details »

Feb 26 2019

C7 Effectively Shut Down by Government Investigation

Earlier today a raid by government authorities at the company headquarters in Kravass rounded up the entire executive division of C7 Aerospace, leaving the company without leadership. The entirety of the company’s financial assets have also been secured and frozen. All employees have been furloughed without pay and told they must remain available for investigators. This was all revealed at a press conference held just recently outside the C7 corporate headquarters. What wasn’t mentioned is why the government is taking such a strong-armed approach against a privately-owned company, which sets a potentially disturbing precedent. We are pleased at least that the top executives weren’t spirited away in the midst of the night or something equally as sinister, but are still left slightly worried given the fact that we are also a privately-owned company and we are close working partners with C7 Aerospace. As of yet, no mention has been made of the KSA and no government agents showed up at KSC today – C7 employees here at the Cape simply received notification of their status shortly after the press conference concluded.

Read the rest of this entry »

Jan 25 2019

Operations Summary – Week of 1/21/19

View post on imgur.com

View operations details »

Jan 11 2019

Operations Summary – Week of 1/7/19

View post on imgur.com

View operations details »

Jan 03 2019

Progeny Mk1-B Airlaunch Flight Analysis

A little over a year and a half after the idea was first put forward by Captain Jebediah and after months of preparation, at the end of last month we finally were able to launch a rocket off an aircraft while in flight. It was a great accomplishment and the main goal was achieved: to prove that such an operation can be carried out without excessive danger to the crew of the aircraft (in this case Flight Officers Tedman and Aldeny) or the rocket itself in being able to complete its own mission. We’ll review the process leading up to the launch before covering the launch flight itself.

Launch Preparation

Once it was confirmed that the rocket could be properly placed atop the aircraft, the first mission began with the simple goal of making sure the Deuce could takeoff and fly normally with the extra weight on the tail and its aerodynamic effects. Both concerns turned out to be minimal, at best – the piggyback was giving the aircraft no trouble whatsoever and it was able to reach an altitude of 7km ASL before climbing became too difficult to continue. That determined the release altitude, and Flight had no problems with going for a release of the rocket on this first test mission given how well-behaved the aircraft was. The release went exactly as planned – the decoupler placed forward of the rocket’s center of mass kicked it back and upright from a flight level position before it fell behind the aircraft, nowhere near striking the tail, which was another concern.

Read the rest of this entry »

Older posts «

» Newer posts