Progeny Mk6 Block I Flight 4 (Radiation Field Study 4)

tickets are on sale for all three upcoming launches - if previous launches are any indication better move fast of you want one. Non-ticketed areas will be available as well - you may not see the rocket light off on the pad but will still get a great view of ascent

payload is already being enclosed in fairings as we are simply re-using the one that was recovered this week. Not having to re-integrate instruments has allowed us to push up the launch on Tuesday to 12:38 UTC with rollout late on Monday

Lead Engineer Simon reports final checkouts of the rocket were made earlier today, it is now being loaded onto the carry vehicle for transport to the pad for mounting as 3rd sunrise approaches. Launch base has been checked over as well & moved to point 150° SSE

[L-4h10m] let's get rrrready to rocket!! That was an attempt to wake everyone up. Early launches are no one's favorite but there will be times orbital mechanics don't give us a choice so best take opportunities to get used to it. Schedule remains the same as prev launches

[L-3h40m] no change made to the ascent profile or recovery except lack of payload fairing detachment. Final launch briefing by Flight Director Lanalye to her team will be rote but there's always a chance the rocket can throw us something surprising so they will be prepared

Flight Director Lanalye has the electric prod ready to ensure our Ops Director doesn't fall asleep during final polling twitter.com/DKerman_KSA/st…

[L-3h10m] Wx reports no storms in the region, Lanalye says her team is set & thus we are GO to wake up the rocket to begin operations load. Except for launch timing & payload fairings no longer detaching, bit.ly/AFCS_KSA has no significant code changes for this mission

[L-2h55m] all systems GO for tanking to begin out on the launch pad, loading 109kg of propellant into the third stage. All other operations are on hold during this 12-15min process for safety reasons

[L-2h40m] we have resumed pre-launch operations as tankers leave the pad, continuing with software checks, comm checks, and monitoring the fuel system levels to ensure no leaks are present. No issues raised by the launch team so far

[L-1h55m] issues board remains clear, now evacuating the pad and sheltering the quick-response team ahead of booster engine checks. MSV Hoodall is pulling up to shore to collect the weather balloon team as winds are off the water today

🌅Sunrise/Sunset🌄
@ KSC (UTC-4)

5/8
#2🌅07:52:35 !!🚀!! 🌄11:29:28
#3🌅13:53:26 🌄17:30:19
#4🌅19:54:17 🌄23:31:10

5/9
#1🌅01:55:08 🌄05:32:01

[L-1h30m] pre-flight operations are wrapping up, now time to look externally and ensure the range is clear once MSV Hoodall assists in the weather balloon release. MSV Tongjess left late yesterday to be in position 325km downrange for recovery, Lymun still in dry dock

[L-1h20m] balloon already on its way up early so Hoodall could move back to its range monitoring station without delaying the countdown. Nor will this affect the accuracy of the upper-level wind reports, just the timing as to how long the data is viable for use

small crowds out on the grounds due to the launch time being moved. Lots of tickets refunded. In fact, an alleged scandal is in the works today: supposedly a large number of Monolithic supporters purchased tickets & thus we moved the launch in attempt to deter their attendance

of course, those pushing the accusations refuse to believe our claim that we don't even collect that kind of information from kerbs buying tickets and had no way of knowing larger than normal followers of Monolithic beliefs would be attending today

[L-45m] pad has been secured, MSV Hoodall is on station and confirms range is clear. Launch team running through a full flight dress rehearsal as a final step to ensure all controllers know their roles and all stations are initialized properly

[L-30m] although we currently have overcast sky conditions too low for launch, final countdown is continuing with another weather check to take place at L-15m prior to range closure and rocket arming. Everyone wave your arms and sweep away the clouds! wave em hard!

sunrise is just a few minutes away. You can see the terminator and sun position on the Ops Tracker map using the Layer Control in the upper-right corner. ops.kerbalspace.agency

[HOLD] we are going to hold the count at L-15m while we wait for mostly cloudy skies to clear. Range Safety Officer needs visual confirmation of good rocket trajectory up to 3km ASL. Cloud deck is around 2.8km but we do not fudge our launch commit criteria

launch team comms remain issue-free and silent, rocket is healthy and awaiting new L-0 timecode to be uploaded. Skies remain overcast and surface winds continue to tail the rocket out of the north but are not a concern at this time

[L-15m] count resumed as we are nearing the end of the usable window for our current upper-level wind data. We will continue up to new L-0 of 13:02 UTC and if clouds don't break we will be forced to resume holding until the next balloon ascends. Range closed. Rocket ARMED

[L-5m] Final readiness polls complete: Wx: GO, still cloudy over pad, but clear skies seen coming; Range: GO; Flight: GO; Tracking: GO; Ops Director: Launch permission granted! 🚀 GO PROGENY 🚀 Flight Termination System transitioning to internal power

at L-5m a kerb broke out from the spectator area screaming Monolithic verse & running for the launch pad >600m away. He made it approx 80m before a security car intercepted him, officers made an epic tackle, bundled him in to the back & drove off. Effect on final countdown: zilch

[T-1m] we are already in the terminal count, rocket is on internal power and RF comms, standing by for launch signal from the Automated Flight Control System, now in command. Skies looking good! Live launch status updates: ops.kerbalspace.agency

Away she flies atop a pillar of flame & smoke! Initial boost will hit max thrust after only 3 seconds then reduce to keep MaxQ under 80kPa during initial climb. 35s from launch stage one will decouple and send the rocket into a coast phase before stage two ignition

flight remains nominal, apokee is outside the atmosphere and final boost is underway. Clean sep of first two stages, track is right down the middle of the ascent corridor. FTS is safed

once again we have BECO-3 just milliseconds prior to exiting the atmosphere, the rocket entered space traveling at 2km/s and is now on its way up to an apokee of 476km - as expected shorter than last flight but now that rocket is same mass diff is solely on acct of >inc

apparently a number of other kerbs left the viewing areas before the launch shortly after the runner was apprehended - a larger group could therefore have been involved but if so they managed to make it off campus before anyone realized & they could be stopped for questioning

passed through apokee, rocket is now on its return voyage. Despite going high enough to reach the region of hazardous radiation instruments aboard have seen no increase the entire flight so far

system crash!! AFCS has terminated operation with a runtime error & launch control is scrambling to attempt a reboot and upload new instructions to just allow it to handle its recovery upon atmospheric entry ~7 min from now

*phew* new instructions uploaded and system has been recovered. We are thankful it was a program termination rather than a lock-up! Great job to Lanalye and her team for keeping calm and handling the situation. Let's bring it home now!

loss of signal over the horizon but last data telemetry showed things were still running nominally aboard. We can only wait and hope the computer remained functional throughout the descent to splashdown. Post-launch ops underway as we await word from MSV Tongjess

we've released the kerb detained earlier for attempting to rush the pad. Apparently he got a group of followers to attend with the goal of them all rushing the pad to overwhelm security & force a scrub of the launch (or end up as martyrs if we for some reason went ahead with it)

as to why only he ended up attempting it, he couldn't say. He suspects they all either got cold feet due to fewer # attending or had thought he was joking. We've blacklisted them all from future launches but have no real charges to bring against them that would stick in court

telemetry data from yesterday's flight is now available. Unfortunately the system crash took with it the ability to record data during some of the fall back from apokee but the flight up is what mattered most to scientists studying the radiation data docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d…

flight analysis from the last launch is up, including future launch plans for the Mk6, with another Block I launch at the end of this month and then two Block II launches in June between Ascension Mk1 launches in June/July kerbalspace.agency/?p=7230

our most extensive bit.ly/OpSummary5-7-18 yet contains everything you might have missed this week along with extra details too verbose for tweets. With the latest Progeny launch campaign completed, truly a relaxing weekend ahead!