Ascension Mk1 Flight 2 (Orbit Attempt 2)

Ascension team have finally released their lengthy report on the first Mk1 flight earlier this month: kerbalspace.agency/?p=7513 prepare yourself for the wall of text!

Ascension Mk1 Block I rocket is loaded up on its carry vehicle ready for rollout early on Monday and later in the day will undergo a hold-down firing test of its engine prior to being cleared for launch on Tuesday

Sheltered Rock and Ockr have completed comms testing and Tracking Station reports all is ready to keep tabs on the Ascension Mk1 as it makes a second attempt for orbit tomorrow, passing northeast over both caverns on its way... into the history books?

Ascension Mk1 was successfully raised vertical and hooked up to its engine support collar and service tower umbilicals. Flight Director Lanalye and her team are now prepping the rocket for a hold-down fire to check the engine's flight readiness

we have had a nominal 30-second firing of the Ascension's K2-X main engine. Remaining propellants are being offloaded and pad re-secured while launch control crew take a look over the data and submit their readiness report

🌅Sunrise/Sunset🌄
@ KSC (UTC-4)

7/17
#2🌄09:40:17 🌅11:50:38 !!🚀!!
#3🌄15:41:08 🌅17:51:29
#4🌄21:41:59 🌅23:52:20

7/18
#1🌄03:42:50 🌅05:53:11

launch day! Weather reports have begun to be collected by our meteorological team from around the region via airships, weather station and maritime vessels. The rest of today's launch timeline will also be the same as last launch. Expect updates at these milestones

[L-4h] Launch Control begins to fill up with staff as Flight Director Lanalye prepares to brief the team one last time on today's flight, which they've been rehearsing the past 2 weeks. Here's what the rocket will aim to accomplish on this mission

the one noteable change between this flight and the first launch is the rocket won't increase pitch-over once it's past MaxQ - it will be aggressively pitching over from the moment it clears the tower, moreso than the first launch

[L-3h30m] we are GO to enter pre-flight ops! Weather reports show no rain or storms in the area, chance of development throughout today is low. Winds are light, leaving mostly cloudy skies to be our main source of weather issues leading up to launch time

[L-3h15m] Automated Flight Control System initialized, rocket and pad are configured for fueling operations to begin, FD Lanalye has given the GO for tankers to hook up and begin pumping propellants onboard. AFCS code changes can be viewed at bit.ly/AFCS_ChangeLog

[L-2h40m] after a trip to the VAB to refill and back to the pad for each tanker, 7 tons of liquid fuel and oxidizer have now been onloaded to the rocket. System checks and pad close outs will now continue as fuel levels are monitored for any leaks

all viewing areas are open - please remember that hearing protection is REQUIRED! KSC staff will be checking all kerbs and moving any without protection indoors. If you're seen removing protection during the launch you will be banned from future visits

[L-1h55m] no issues being worked, rocket is now ready for controllers to check over its engine and ignition systems. Pad is clearing of personnel out to 500m, with a quick response team sheltering in the nearby bunker

[L-1h30m] wrapping up preflight with a clear issues board - a few minor problems cropped up yesterday leading up to the hold-down fire test and were resolved. MSV Hoodall is on station and working with the Range Safety Officer to secure the ascent corridor

[L-1h20m] balloon crews have driven UTVs southwest of KSC beyond the hills to the grasslands near the shores to release the high-altitude balloon for checking upper-level winds. Three are prepared but all are sharing parts so only one is ready to go at a time

[L-45m] inside an hour to launch and all continues to progress well - pad is secure and clear of personnel. A fuel truck left behind hooked up to the service tower contains the pressurization gas to onload later in the countdown. Launch rehearsal has begun

[L-30m] winds continue to remain light out of the southwest, no showers or thunderstorms in the area. Clouds remain overcast and low but we still have time for skies to clear so weather is GO to continue into final countdown!

sunrise shows we have broken skies off in the distance to the east but unfortunately off to the right out of picture to the south no clear skies are in sight at the moment

[HOLD] we will standby at L-15min, prior to range closure and tank pre-pressurization, until we have indication of clearer skies coming our way. Umbarg is to the SW and will be able to give us notice of better conditions. Wx updates will be posted every 30min

upper-level wind conditions are nominal. Balloon will pop soon & splashdown just off the coast, where a recovery boat from MSV Hoodall will collect it and return it to shore so its meteorological instrument can be mounted to the second balloon if needed

Wx update: sky remains overcast, clouds low at ~2.5km. Winds still light out of the SW. Hold remains, rocket still healthy. Controllers using the time to run extra system checks and launch drills

[L-15m] we have broken skies to the south and Umbarg confirms clearer weather is heading our way! Countdown has been restarted. RSO confirms pad is clear, Hoodall confirms range is clear - rocket is now ARMED for ignition, Flight Termination System is ACTIVE

[L-13m] nitrogen gas now being pumped into pressure containers onboard the rocket and will be used to maintain tank pressure during flight to feed the engine. This is done late to ensure any tank rupture does not harm pad workers

[L-5m] Final readiness polls complete: Wx: GO; Range: GO; Flight: GO; Tracking Station: GO; Downrange Tracking: GO; Ops Director: Launch permission granted! 🚀 GO ASCENSION 🚀 FTS on internal power, service tower booms unlocked to prep retraction, AFCS awaits terminal count

[L-3m] preliminary tank pressurization underway to add structural rigidity to allow the rocket to stand on its own atop its engine support collar once the service tower booms swing away prior to ignition

[T-2m] Terminal countdown begins! AFCS now takes full control of the rocket from this point forward, ensuring all systems remain nominal during engine ignition and run-up prior to commanding release of the support collar to begin ascent

[T-1m] rocket is on internal power and service tower booms have moved aside. RF comms check is good, battery drain rate is nominal. These are the final steps the rocket will take before lift off. Follow its ascent on our Ops Tracker! bit.ly/AscensionMk1B1…

good ignition, throttle up and clamp release for LIFT OFF of the 2nd Ascension Mk1 Block I making another attempt at orbit! Tower is cleared and the rocket has begun to turn towards the horizon, aiming to be at 60° pitch by 10km

rocket is through max dynamic pressure and throttle hold is engaged to ensure the rocket does not go too fast through the atmosphere. 66° pitch at 10km is bit behind target - now passing through 15km we want it to reach 45° by 20km. It also just passed Mach 2

46° at 20km was better but the slower-than-planned pitch-over in the beginning may have cost us an orbit. Perikee is dropping fast now as rocket pushes through the outer atmo, pitched at 14°. Only a few seconds of fuel remaining. Engine chamber pressure remains nominal

flameout! Tanks have run dry and left us on a sub-orbital trajectory, but we did come very close to perikee positive (it starts at nearly -600km). Rocket now coasting up to a 268km apokee over the next 8 minutes

behold our first photo from space! Booster cam is capturing video but we don't have enough power to spare to beam that back so it will send us still images instead at preset points along the trajectory. First one is from 80km, looking back down towards KSC

here's a shot from 150km, looking down at Sheltered Rock. We may not have Kerbin in the frame for all these photos - rocket is on a slow spin and tumble so wherever the camera ends up pointing is what we get. Also takes 1-2min to downlink photo so rocket is already past 150km

250km up a short while ago, still looking towards Sheltered Rock but Ockr is also now in the frame, hidden below cloud cover in the bottom right. Rocket was 572km downrange at the time of the photo, is currently 726km downrange and approaching apokee

the view from apokee, 268km and rocket has drifted around looking along its direction of travel towards the terminator. We are high enough the glare from the planet is reduced enough the camera can resolve some stars and nebulae filaments

loss of signal from KSC, but both Ockr and Sheltered Rock still have line of sight and data relay is up and running great. Trajectory analysis however shows Ockr will lose signal well before the rocket begins to re-enter the atmosphere in ~5 minutes

we got one last photo from 200km (it was every x50 on the way up and x00 on the way down) before Ockr lost signal, looking south along the terminator over the night side of Kerbin. Fabulous! Now let's just hope we can recover all the rest of the data

we had airships staged at Ockr & Kravass to head east or west as needed, and the one at Ockr already departed once we knew rocket was sub-orbital. It'll search along the last known trajectory for the landing site, listening for the radio locator beacon, which has 2 days of power

post-launch activities winding down, 2nd Wx balloon recovered offshore. Progeny launch base will be returned to the pad today. The earliest we would expect to hear from the airship would be late tonight, as it still has not even gotten halfway to the search area as of right now

telemetry data from yesterday's flight up to the point where signal was lost has been posted. Mission analysis has already begun, taking a close look at why the rocket failed to pitch over as much as it should have in early ascent phase docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d…

KerBalloon mission to the Badlands has returned after a successful trip. It was night for them during the Ascension launch but unfortunately it was too low over the northern horizon for them to see it re-enter

earlier today the recovery airship flew in contact range of Ockr to report that they have failed to find any locator beacon signal nor sign of impact area on the landscape. They dropped a sonar buoy in the waters of the search area and heard no pings

weather remains unsuitable for flight so Deuce mission will have to try again on Monday. It was a slow week, but you can still check out our weekly Ops Summary in case you missed anything: kerbalspace.agency/?p=7811