Tag Archive: Progeny Mk5 Flight 1

Overall, yesterday’s flight was a success in that we managed to launch the Mk5 into space without any major issues. The fact that the rocket was built almost exactly the same as the previously-successful Mk4 gave us a lot of confidence that there wouldn’t be any problems with stability during the flight, but there was a little bit of worry with regard to the extra girth of the inline probe core. It was placed just above the fins to maintain stability by keeping the wider portions of the rocket closer together. While we did notice a larger precession to the rocket’s spin once the 3rd stage was flying on its own, the spin rate was high enough to keep it pointed prograde during both its coast and its boost phases. Launching at 3° from vertical was another relative unknown, although again we had previous Mk4 data to help ease concerns. The Mk4 launch with a TWR of 4 raised its nose only 1° starting from 5° so we felt safe having only 3° of pitch to play with. Turns out we cut things a bit close as even with calm winds the nose of the Mk5 lifted to 89.4° during its initial ascent from the launch base. This will severely limit launch commit criteria when it comes to wind blowing from the east. Other than these two considerations the flight performance was very similar to that of the Mk4. While there were no major issues, minor ones were uncovered during review of the flight data collected both on the ground and from the recovered payload’s telemetry data unit.

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