Progeny Mk7-A Flight 2 (RTG Payload Test)

given that it only had a powered flight of 40 seconds a lot of effort had to go into figuring out what went wrong with the first Progeny Mk7-A mission. Luckily, past experience helped a great deal. Full report: kerbalspace.agency/?p=9294

CFO Mortimer has announced the Kerbin World Firsts organization released the bounty of 57,000 funds to our account in recognition of our accomplishment this past week of putting a kerbal into space. This is enough to get the Ascension Mk2 off the ground later this year!

Ascension Mk1 for next week has passed load checks and is being laid back horizontal for final close outs. Mk1 for Sept has its engine prepared and will be center-stage next week to begin its final integration while the Ascension Mk2 & Progeny Mk7-A prep begins in the wings

Kerbin I plans are finalized! Our 1st orbital probe is based on future communication satellites that will be among the 1st commercial payloads for the Ascension Mk2. It has enough battery to last 18-20 hrs on orbit & can also hibernate if needed. Full res: flickr.com/gp/kerbal_spac…

after this past week's mission, the Ascension team leads had a two-hour meeting and brought their concerns to Operations Director @DKerman_KSA, who made the decision that we are going to bump the Mk2 flight to December & move Jeb's Mk1 up to late October

basic reason is better guidance comes with less fin angle, but more fin angle is needed to fly the planned orbital trajectory so Ascension will wait to get better data on Progenitor's steerable fins after this month's launch, then scale them up for the Mk2

the Progeny Mk7-A is on its way out to the launch pad for mounting then Flight Director Lanalye will run her B team through checks of the rocket systems along with a wet dress rehearsal to check out the pad systems

downrange tracking at Sheltered Rock & Ockr reports they are prepared to receive and relay telemetry data. Airship at Sheltered Rock is standing by for recovery operations. If we aimed this right the payload should crash down in the mountains just to the northeast

🌅Sunrise/Sunset🌄
@ KSC (UTC-4)

9/26
#2🌄10:19:23
#3🌅12:29:45 !!🚀!! 🌄16:20:14
#4🌅18:30:36 🌄22:21:05  

9/27
#1🌅00:31:27 🌄04:21:56
#2🌅06:32:18

[L-5h10m] all launch support crew have reported for duty & pre-launch operations are getting underway here at KSC as regional weather reports are gathered from stations, airships & MSVs. Expect updates at the milestones listed on this countdown timeline

[L-4h40m] Flight Director Lanalye has assembled her B team for their final mission brief. The Mk7-A has been modified from original spec to remove the chute and instead carry an additional payload within a new fairing shell that we plan to also use on Ascension rockets

the payload is an RTG test article, which will be crashed into the mountains so it has less opportunity to slow down before impact. We have to ensure casing can survive an uncontrolled re-entry as designed. It contains the radio & internal batt power to be located afterwards

the goals of the original Mk7-A mission still apply as well - once in space the reaction wheel system will be activated to attempt to reorient the final stage. If it is too much mass, the payload element can be decoupled from the fuel tanks

[L-4h10m] we have a GO from the weather desk to continue pre-launch ops, as high winds are expected to die down by launch time. Launch controllers are now waking the rocket and onloading flight code - details can be found at bit.ly/AFCS_ChangeLog

[L-3h35m] rocket and launch pad have both been configured for tanking and the GO has been given to begin onload of liquid propellants to the third stage through the service tower boom, fed from a small fuel truck hooked up to the base

[L-3h25m] rocket has sucked up 220kg of fuel to fill its tanks, the levels of which will now be closely monitored to ensure no leaks exist. Pad crew unhooking the truck & cleaning up while launch controllers resume pre-flight system checks

[L-2h40m] issue board has been cleared as pre-flight reaches the point of system checks on the 3 engines. For safety in the unlikely event of an unplanned engine start pad crew is clearing back to 300m with a Quick Reaction Team sheltering in the nearby bunker

[L-1h30m] all rocket systems have been checked out and cleared for flight. Pad crew is moving back in to secure the launch site while MSV Lymun, just arriving on station offshore, will coordinate with the Range Safety Officer to ensure our launch corridor is clear

[L-1h20m] weather balloon has been released, timed so its slow ~5m/s ascent to the upper atmosphere at 18km+ will be reached in time for data analysis prior to the L-5min general polls. We're not expecting calm conditions, but hopefully within tolerances

[L-45m] prior to final countdown a full launch rehearsal will now get underway to ensure all systems and assets are properly configured. It's also an opportunity for FD Lanalye to sometimes throw in some minor last-minute problems for her team to solve

[HOLD] although rehearsal went well and everything is resetting for the actual launch, weather conditions have not improved as expected and surface winds remain in the red. We will stand by @ L-30min for data from the weather balloon on upper atmosphere conditions in ~20min

weather desk confirms upper atmosphere is also too disturbed for safe ascent conditions. Launch team is waiting for the meteorologists to further analyze data & pull in updated regional reports to see if we have a chance of launching later this day cycle

we will remain holding at L-30min launch readiness - updated forecast still holds a good chance surface winds will calm by the end of the day cycle. Conditions will continue to be monitored and a second weather balloon is being prepared while recovery of the first is underway

because we don't care if the payload lands at night, the launch window is open to 30min prior to sunset - we want some daylight remaining for visual tracking as this rocket design is still new & post-flight analysis will rely heavily on video review of ascent

new L-0 has been set for 19:50 UTC - as late as possible. Surface winds remain red but our 2nd weather balloon has now released anyways because any later and it won't make it up in time for our final launch target. We continue to hope the winds will die down during its ascent

latest weather report shows wind speeds are trending downwards! if it continues we should have a GO to resume countdown @ 19:20 UTC. In the meanwhile, mess hall behind the Astronaut Complex is open to all visitors still waiting around, as well as the static displays

[L-30m] surface winds are yellow but continue to trend downwards and we have a GO to continue the countdown. All launch support crew remained on stand-by without need for relief and are picking up right where we left off earlier in the day cycle

[L-15m] RSO has confirmed pad clear, airspace clear, waters clear and closed the range. Rocket is now ARMED, Flight Termination System ACTIVE. All visitors should be returning to viewing locations

all stations quiet except for the weather desk, as meteorologists analyze the upper-atmospheric data that started coming in about 10 minutes ago. Surface winds have just gone green, we just have to keep fingers crossed the air high above has calmed down some as well

[L-5m] weather is GO! All stations are GO! A small cheer can be heard from the crowd outside as controllers inch a little closer to their consoles in anticipation. Ops Director @DKerman_KSA has granted launch permission - 🚀 GO PROGENY!! 🚀 Standing by for Terminal Count

[T-2m] service arm has been detached, rocket is on internal power and RF comm check underway while EC drain levels monitored. AFCS has taken control of the rocket and has begun running through the final automated launch sequence to check all is ready for ignition

[T-1m] rocket will soon give its readiness report and a final GO/NO GO at T-30s will be carried out prior to launch commit. Tune in now for live ascent telemetry on the Ops Tracker! ops.kerbalspace.agency/?vessel=progen… Let's make it to space this time!

ignition and LIFT OFF!! 3.6Gs of force pushes the rocket clear of the VAB's shadow as it tips over, clearing the towers and aiming downrange along a heading of 45.5°. 35s from now will see MECO-1 and stage separation followed by a coast phase up to 15km before MES-2

rocket is off course but that was expected given how little we know about its flight characteristics, something we hope to improve with this flight. 1st stage booster nearly contacted the rocket after separation but thankfully missed. 2nd stage boost underway & nominal

a cheer went up through Launch Control as the 3rd stage ignited & held the rocket steady! 2nd stage was kept after MECO-2 to continue use of fins but almost dragged the rocket too far off prograde as it slowed down. High AoA warnings was a tense moment. GO PROGENY!

ascent complete & the rocket is coasting up to just 117km apokee, so controllers are scrambling to ensure mission objectives are met within the much shorter time than planned - rocket will re-enter in only ~4min instead of closer to 9. Much more drag than anticipated in modeling!

reaction wheel system was successfully activated and used, after some trouble, to maintain prograde orientation. The RTG was then shot off via a decoupler to ensure it makes it over land. Had the rocket followed the planned profile, RTG would have remained attached

we are about to pass through apokee & the SAS system is still trying to use the reaction wheels to orient & hold the rocket facing radial out (pointing away from Kerbin), which it was commanded to do almost half a minute ago but keeps over-correcting

controllers have determined that with the mass of the fuel tanks & engine still attached, the reaction wheels are drawing power faster than the batteries can discharge. This was anticipated though & a decoupler can separate the payload element

after losing the extra mass, the reaction wheels required less power and were much better at being able to point & hold. Several orientation commands were sent before SAS was deactivated prior to atmospheric re-entry, which will begin seconds from now

while the main payload section is still plummeting through the atmosphere right now, the RTG continues to coast through space and will fall back to Kerbin ~20km further downrange. The airship from Sheltered Rock has already left its berth and is heading for the area

we've lost contact with the main payload section over the horizon and although it likely landed in water the impact force would have still damaged all components beyond repair. We are only aiming to recover the RTG casing intact later today for mission success

post-launch operations winding down, MSV Lymun has moved off station after returning our weather balloon payload & confirms the first & second stage boosters splashed downrange. Airship is out of comms range & ~45min from the recovery area to begin searching for the RTG

radio beacon in RTG casing only good to ~2km so they have to get close and have a large area to search. One upside tho is not searching the mountains as planned, which could have taken days due to commonly poor weather making airship travel through there hazardous

✨🎉KERZZAHH!🎊✨ airship is on its way back to Sheltered Rock with the RTG casing! Although it still needs to be closely inspected to see if it performed as designed, the ability for engineers to do this was the goal and therefore marks this mission as a success

mission telemetry from yesterday's flight up to the point of signal loss is now available for perusal: docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d… here too is another launch photo from one of the public viewing areas, the one next to Launch Control

during last week's mission, other than fears of the rocket coasting off prograde too far for the 3rd stage engine gimbal to correct, another heart-stopping moment was when the first stage nearly flew into the rocket upon decouple as controllers watched the tracking footage

more good news for our future orbital missions, the RTG casing from last week's mission has been carefully inspected and does not show any more damage than expected from an impact at the speeds it endured, estimated to be at over 100m/s

lessons learned from the final Progeny Mk7-A mission have been published with the flight analysis report: kerbalspace.agency/?p=9928 - we look forward to revealing more about the Mk7-B that should fly in early 2020