Category Archive: News

What's going on at the Kerbal Space Agency

Dec 20 2016

Progeny Mk2.1 Flight Analysis

The main goal of the Progeny Mk2.1, our first multi-booster rocket, was to see what would happen to the apokee of the payload based on the timing of the second stage ignition. To do this we setup 3 launch profiles with ignition at early coast, late coast and plans for a mid-coast ignition time that would depend upon results of the first two launches. All three launches were successful and we have now analyzed all the data that was gathered.

The first flight ignited its second-stage booster just prior to the burnout of the first stage. This was not only done as part of the overall plan discussed in the previous paragraph but to see if the first stage booster would explode due to the heat of the second stage ignition. The failure of the first stage booster to overheat and explode has made it clearer that the explosion from the Progeny Mk2 was caused mainly by the impact of the boosters. This first flight of the Mk2.1 reached an apokee of only 2.8km, which is hardly impressive considering the Progeny Mk1-A with its single booster reached an apokee of just over 2km. The early staging boosted the speed of the rocket so fast while it was low in the atmosphere the dynamic pressure was as high as 72kPa. The thicker air also caused much more tumble of the payload (seen in the scatter of the AoA plot on the graph at the top of the telemetry report) upon separation from the second booster, which increased drag and lowered the apokee.

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Dec 16 2016

Operations Summary – Week of 12/12/16

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Dec 09 2016

Operations Summary – Week of 12/5/16

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Dec 02 2016

Operations Summary – Week of 11/28/16

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Nov 25 2016

Operations Summary – Week of 11/21/16

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Nov 18 2016

Operations Summary – Week of 11/14/16

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Nov 11 2016

Operations Summary – Week of 11/7/16

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Nov 09 2016

Progenitor Program Continues with the Progeny Mk2.1

The investigation into the Progeny Mk2 launch failure has concluded and have found the cause to be due to a failure of the second stage engine fairing, which was improperly used as a structural element in the design of the Mk2. Tests last week showed what can happen should the upper stage booster impact with enough force to slightly crumple, and further tests this week allowed engineers to properly analyze the rigidity of the engine fairing material to show where original specifications fell short. USI has already started on a design fix to resolve the booster self-ignition issue and while they don’t have a stronger material to use for the engine shroud pieces, they did offer up a structural interstage decoupler that the second stage booster could rest upon, thus removing stress from the engine fairings. KSA has placed orders for the decoupler, as well as additional Mk1-A and Mk1-B booster cores, plus a few other required parts that are now low in supply in our warehouse. The majority of these parts will arrive within a week, except for the Mk1-B boosters, which still are being reworked to prevent the self-ignition issue. We expect them to be delivered by the end of the month and will prep for their arrival by partially assembling as much of the Mk2.1 rocket as possible. The only change to the rocket design will be the addition of the decoupler between the first and second booster stages.

Return to flight will occur sometime in the beginning of December.