Flight Officers Tedman & Aldeny return to work and retry the mission to Area ZN-223 Jeb & Val could not complete due to weather back in March, gathering the 1st science data over the southern ice caps
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Kerbal Space Agency
@KSA_MissionCtrl
BREAKING: KNN has reported that the entire executive division of C7 Aerospace has been arrested and the government is launching a full scale investigation into the company. We are partners with them and have no idea what is going on - this is all news to us!!
Kerbal Space Agency
@KSA_MissionCtrl
we have learned all we know from the press conference just held: kerbalspace.agency/?p=8781 this will have an immediate impact on fixed-wing flight here at the Cape, however the long-term impact is still largely speculative since more details have yet to be released by authorities
Kerbal Space Agency
@KSA_MissionCtrl
Ops Director @DKerman_KSA has been mostly stone-walled in Sheltered Rock attempting to get some answers on the whole C7 debacle. Learn more along with what else went on this week in our Ops Summary: kerbalspace.agency/?p=8798
Kerbal Space Agency
@KSA_MissionCtrl
we once again bid farewell to Aldeny & Tedman, who will be returning to flight instructor duties while this whole C7 mess is sorted out. If Ascension can free up Val and/or Jeb every now and then, Genesis may still be able to fly missions with the Deuce & Civvie
Kerbal Space Agency
@KSA_MissionCtrl
Flight Officers Ted & Aldy have returned to KSC this weekend and are raring to get back to work this week ahead of C7's return to operations the following week. They'll take another attempt at the flight Jeb & Val had to abort due to weather last month
Kerbal Space Agency
@KSA_MissionCtrl
today's Deuce mission has been delayed until tomorrow due to poor weather conditions reported out at sea by the merchant fleet and a science expedition that happened to just be returning from the southern ocean
Kerbal Space Agency
@KSA_MissionCtrl
Ted & Aldy standing down from flight readiness again today - weather is good now but forecast predicts poor conditions by the time they return. If tomorrow has the same problem, they will just plan from the beginning to divert to SRG or OKG
Kerbal Space Agency
@KSA_MissionCtrl
with favorable weather today, FOs Ted & Aldy have just departed from Rwy09 for bit.ly/Area_ZN-223. They will fly overnight across the water and reach land by sunrise. Any guesses why they are flying at night other than having no hazardous terrain to worry about?
Kerbal Space Agency
@KSA_MissionCtrl
aircraft has dropped below the horizon out of contact as they climbed through 6km - getting high to save fuel on the long journey with still just under 800km to go. They should be back in contact with us sometime after 22:00 UTC if all goes well
Kerbal Space Agency
@KSA_MissionCtrl
by now the Deuce should be circling its destination, deploying its suite of science instruments. They also should have passed through the elevated radiation region similar to the one found in the north polar regions. Levels will not be harmful during their brief exposure
Kerbal Space Agency
@KSA_MissionCtrl
arriving over the target >7km ASL they will make the initial return leg at just ~500 AGL to pass again through the hazardous radiation region under a thicker layer of the atmosphere to record the difference in levels before climbing back to a high cruise altitude
Kerbal Space Agency
@KSA_MissionCtrl
Tedman has just hailed us to request approach vectors, reports they had nothing but minor chop to contend with on their flight. Congrats to them both on being the first to explore the southern polar region by aircraft! Their flight path is also a hint for our previous question
Kerbal Space Agency
@KSA_MissionCtrl
flight controllers set up the aircraft for a pattern approach to Rwy09 (now on final) and we received this image from the belly camera of Mun and Minmus alongside a snowy mountain range as the Deuce hugged the deck on the way home over the ice caps
Kerbal Space Agency
@KSA_MissionCtrl
the aircraft is parked back at the HAB after Aldy set her down easy on the runway. Lead Scientist Cheranne is eager to get the radiation readings to her researchers - being 99.999% sure the southern radiation region existed still doesn't beat having the data proving it does!
Kerbal Space Agency
@KSA_MissionCtrl
still no right answer to our question yesterday as to why the Deuce mission flew through the night over water. Here's a related question - why didn't the aircraft just fly straight back to KSC from the polar region like it did on the way there? twitter.com/KSA_MissionCtrā¦
Kerbal Space Agency
@KSA_MissionCtrl
Ted & Aldy set a new record for longest continuous flight time of 4:59:07, beating their old record of 4:31:41. You can view all our records and achievements here: kerbalspace.agency/?page_id=72
Kerbal Space Agency
@KSA_MissionCtrl
how do you navigate over a featureless ocean in the dark when a simple compass heading isn't enough to arrive over a certain spot? The stars! That's why the Deuce flight flew at night. Once it was light enough, they had terrain features to guide them
Kerbal Space Agency
@KSA_MissionCtrl
with the radiation data from last week's flight compared with the mission over the north polar region a year ago scientists have been able to confirm a suspected linear increase in radiation dosage as one gets higher from the ground, ~0.0035rad/hr every kilometer
Kerbal Space Agency
@KSA_MissionCtrl
flying 2km higher than the 2018 mission (ops.kerbalspace.agency/?body=Kerbin-Sā¦) only exposed the crew to a max of 0.085rad/h for 4min. It takes ~37rads to show signs of radiation sickness so the crew was never in any danger
Kerbal Space Agency
@KSA_MissionCtrl
one more photo from the recent Deuce flight looking south towards the flat ice caps as the sun rises almost as high as it ever gets over the horizon down there, seen just over the last snowy mountain range from 8km ASL. Isn't that cold clear air just stunning?
