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Apr 04 2017

Progeny Mk3 Launch Scrubbed

During today’s launch readiness routine Operations Director Drew Kerman got word from a pair of employees who had just returned from a long walk along the shore. They had stumbled upon the remains of the second booster stage from the previous Progeny Mk3 launch an incredible 6km south of the KSC. It was found buried nose-first into the sand just a few hundred meters from the water. The orientation of the booster tells us that the fins spun it up and created enough lift to allow it to glide a considerable distance, made more effective given the rather flat trajectory it was already traveling upon when it was detached from the rocket. We’ve seen this happen before with previous Progeny launches but never to this extent.

Drew and the rest of the executive staff immediately agreed that this was a serious problem despite the fact that the area surrounding the KSC is completely devoid of any additional settlements. Rocket parts can contain dangerous and/or harmful materials and need to be disposed of properly, not left sitting around for anyone to stumble upon. Furthermore losing track of our rocket parts is not a habit we want to start getting into, and everyone is a bit disappointed with themselves for simply assuming it had landed in the water after launch.

In addition to establishing better procedures and equipment for tracking spent rocket stages, the Progenitor teams will put their heads together to come up with a way to mitigate the stages from doing anything other than dropping within a reasonable area from where they were decoupled. Until these problems are resolved, further flights of the Progeny Mk3 are suspended.