Tag Archive: Progeny Mk4 Flight 2

Today marks the official retirement of the Mk4, the sixth design iteration of the Progenitor program. It launched five times, the most of any Progeny rocket to date, and although it suffered three failures it ultimately achieved the goal of being the first rocket to break out of the atmosphere and enter space for a brief period of time. The Mk4 represents the culmination of the iterative Progeny rocket design, building on previous single and multi-stage designs developed earlier in the program, and very little will be changed moving on to the Mk5, which will focus mainly on kOS scripting for automated flights. Program engineers have reviewed all the data from the five flights and have released numerous conclusions that will lay the foundation for flights of the Progeny Mk5.

Terminal Countdown

Although the Mk4 held no capability for automated flight, we were able to implement some automation on the ground side of things with the Automated Firing Control System (AFCS). This very basic system was designed to be manually triggered and then monitor the countdown timer to send the launch signal at precisely L-0:00:00.0, so down to the millisecond. Precise launch times will become important when looking to reach a specific orbital injection or even reach a certain area of space at apokee for a sub-orbital launch. Read the rest of this entry »

Over the past few days the Progenitor teams have gathered to discuss how to move forward with the Mk4 rocket after the ascent failure suffered towards the end of last week. A full analysis of the launch was carried out and these conclusions were then used to decide how the following series of launches should proceed. Operations Director Drew Kerman was called away for an emergency management meeting to our Umbarg HQ yesterday and finally today managed to call in to discuss these plans and give his approval.

Launch Analysis

After the first launch destroyed the rocket through too much dynamic pressure on ascent, this launch aimed to test how the rocket performed while traveling as fast as it could through the upper atmosphere. To this end, the 3rd stage LF/O engine was fired at full thrust for the duration of its fuel supply, which equates to a burn of 30.6 seconds. The air in the upper atmosphere is thinner and thus generates less drag, which means the rocket can travel much faster. The lower volume of air also means thermal buildup is a serious concern due to the decrease of heat transfer – in other words although less friction is producing less heat, that heat is not dissipating as quickly so it builds up at an increasing rate. We believe this heat is what eventually led to the failure of the rocket, starting with the nose cone.

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