Captain Jeb takes a photo from his seat in the cockpit of a Deuce as they work their way east over the Kerblantic towards the coming day
Above the Storm (12/8/19)
At 6km ASL the crew of the Deuce make ready to dive into the thick of a low-pressure system to capture valuable data about the storm while it is active
Rolling On Out (12/9/19)
The Progeny Mk6 Block I for tomorrow's mission heads for the launch site with the mounting vehicle, tanker truck and crew shuttle following behind. The shadow of the service towers is visible on the VAB doors in front of which is parked the Mobile Launch Platform
Spectators Arrive (12/10/19)
Shuttle buses are seen here leaving the Support Village and carrying visitors over the causeway to KSC so they can view the upcoming launch
Progeny Mk6 Block 1 No.14 (12/10/19)
The third in a series of 4 launches that will carry student-designed and built experiments up into space
Zosimus Pass #4 (12/10/19)
In what turned out to be it's last pass, the debris of the asteroid likely rained down somewhere along this track as it has not been spotted back in orbit in the days since
Mount Kermon (12/11/19)
On the way to the Sheltered Rock region, Captain Jebediah lets the autopilot do its job while he snags a photo of the highest mountain in the KSC region
SRG Afar (12/11/19)
Flying south of Sheltered Rock General airport, seen off in the distance, a passing Deuce is on its way to investigate a storm north of the mountains, hidden over the horizon and behind the tall peaks
Mountain Sunset (12/11/19)
The sun begins to dip behind the mountains of Sheltered Rock as seen from a Deuce belly cam at 6km
Stack It Up (12/12/19)
The final rocket for 2019, a Progeny Mk6 Block I, is being vertically stacked to test load bearing elements. To the rear workers get Ascension Mk1 & Mk2 parts ready to move to "center stage" next year for final assembly
Radiation Study (12/12/19)
The aurora that can be found near the north and south poles are formed from charged particles striking the upper atmosphere after being funneled down along the lines of the magnetic field, which creates a belt of radiation that affects even the surface at high latitudes. This balloon will ascend to 25km to measure these changes in radiation
Radiation Data (12/13/19)
a plot of rad levels collected during the balloon's ascent. The rad increase should be more linear but since the balloon is drifting south towards the edge of where the outer radiation belt meets the atmosphere the increase starts to fall off
Ike is 70km smaller than Mun but whereas Mun is 3x smaller than Kerbin, Ike is only 2.46x smaller than Duna, making it second when comparing large moons to their parent planet. First place goes to Plock's moon Karen, which is 2.2x smaller
Night & Day (12/2/19)
Because you're looking through the least amount of air when zenith eclipses, those that happen straight up, darken the sky bright stars and nebulae can be seen, as well as planets, like Moho just down and to the right of Mun and the sun
Asteroids of November 2019 (12/2/19)
10 total, Two impacted Kerbin and a third, Zosimus, is still possibly in orbit after two atmospheric passes so far
Zosimus Rediscovery (12/3/19)
Confirmed to be back on its way down for a 3rd pass through our atmosphere, astronomers have noticed it is dimmer, tho that could simply mean it's smaller from ablation or perhaps it has accumulated sooty dark material
Zosimus Rediscovery (12/3/19)
Confirmed to be back on its way down for a 3rd pass through our atmosphere, astronomers have noticed it is dimmer, tho that could simply mean it's smaller from ablation or perhaps it has accumulated sooty dark material
Zosimus Atmospheric Pass #3 (12/5/19)
Still too remote and with too short notice to set up any observation stations, astronomers will have to hunt for it again to see if it survived
Alaba Encounter #30 (12/5/19)
The moonlet continues to encounter Mun as predicted. The blue square is ATN Central, which was able to view the entire SOI transit
Alaba Trajectory Update (12/5/19)
Thanks to ATN Central's observations an update with new orbital data was able to be posted later the same day. This has been confirmed to be the final encounter of 2019
Alaba Trajectory Update (12/5/19)
Thanks to ATN Central's observations an update with new orbital data was able to be posted later the same day. This has been confirmed to be the final encounter of 2019
Jool & Eve Appulse (12/6/19)
Seen from the top of the VAB as the sun sets, Jool and Eve nestle close together in the darkening sky
Jool & Eve Appulse Scoped (12/6/19)
The Kerman Observatory at Kravass got a good look at Even and Jool as they passed near each other, with Eve heading towards inferior conjunction and thus is phased and bigger than Jool in apparent size
Zosimus Rediscovery (12/6/19)
Using data from its first two atmospheric passes astronomers were able to better predict where it might be found if it survived this recent pass. Despite heading towards the sun on the dayside of Kerbin, its residual heat from the passage allowed the IR scope at ATN Central to pick it up within the search field made narrower by the aforementioned past observations
Zosimus Rediscovery (12/6/19)
Using data from its first two atmospheric passes astronomers were able to better predict where it might be found if it survived this recent pass. Despite heading towards the sun on the dayside of Kerbin, its residual heat from the passage allowed the IR scope at ATN Central to pick it up within the search field made narrower by the aforementioned past observations
A high-altitude balloon begins its ascent to 26km from near the middle of the Great Desert
Zosimus (11/24/19
a newly-captured Class-A asteroid that will eventually crash or burn up after multiple passes through Kerbin's atmosphere
Zosimus (11/24/19
a newly-captured Class-A asteroid that will eventually crash or burn up after multiple passes through Kerbin's atmosphere. Although it appears to impact the planet, the scale of the figure is making it only appear to do so
Zosimus (11/24/19
a newly-captured Class-A asteroid that will eventually crash or burn up after multiple passes through Kerbin's atmosphere, as you can see here by the dotted line
Backseat Driver (11/26/19)
Specialist Bill is aboard with Commander Valentina and Captain Jebediah to test out a new instrument console that will read out data gathered from wing instruments and allow Bill to tell the flight crew where to go to collect the best data
Tracking Station (11/27/19)
The three 7m dishes help us stay in touch with vessels that have been launched, and in the future satellites on orbit They can communicate effectively out to Minmus. Right now between launch campaigns they are undergoing maintenance and calibration
Slate Orbit (11/28/19)
The view from around Sarnus, with Slate above and Eeloo near the rings. Slate is only 60km smaller than Kerbin. This is an artist rendering in our Kerbin Relocated imagery series
Alaba Trajectory Update (11/29/19)
Changes to its orbit after the 29th encounter continue to match predictions made back in October
Alaba Trajectory Update (11/29/19)
Changes to its orbit after the 29th encounter continue to match predictions made back in October
we’ve also placed another order for K2-X engines. This latest Ascension Mk3 mission has shown we want to move faster than planned to the Mk4 so the thrust vector control version of the WildCat-V will begin development immediately and we will order more when that is ready
a final round of static fires last week has completed the WildCat-V’s second qualification run & we’ll know for sure by next month if it is finally ready for production. If so, two will be ready by Q3 2021 for Extremis I and a Min/Minmus mission
the Viklun upper stage will be systematically dismantled to help determine the cause of the flexing and what effect it had on the overall structural integrity of the rocket. The damage from splashdown will reduce these findings but hopefully the effort will still prove valuable
onboard vid shows the pitch oscillations during the Ascension Mk3’s ascent were way worse than we imagined – the *entire rocket flexed* 😱 inherent structural issue? Could also be from the air pressure at the nose (think boat bow slamming up & down on hvy seas) from shallow angle
when the Viklun stage splashed down the empty fuel tanks blew out, helping to alleviate impact pressure on the payload but fragments pierced the flight computer & damaged the flash memory. Onboard tlm data was lost but the ops log final mins were able to be pieced back together
one of the things that led to the win was research done by KSA scientists to prove that asteroids contain mineral wealth which could greatly alleviate the need for surface mining. We are committed to working on a system of space resource gathering for deployment later this decade
here we can say we are actually working closely with Monolithic followers to protect Kerbin’s pristine environment that developed after the asteroid strike. A major victory was won today in court with a 5-year moratorium established against surface mining
the KSA has been involved for the past two years, led by a legal team put together by Lead Scientist Cheranne, in helping environmentalists to fight against companies looking to incorporate with the purpose of mining the surface of Kerbin to extract raw materials
at this time we do not know the nature of the threat or the time frame, but given that we have suffered an attack in the past (kerbalspace.agency/?p=9965) we have no choice but to take this seriously & deal with the relatively minor inconvenience compared to a potential loss of life
there is also now apparently a threat against KSC and we have complied with orders from the government security forces earlier today that the entire facility be evacuated. We will continue to operate at limited capacity from our HQ in Umbarg until the threat has passed
the original plan to develop a 1.25m TVC vacuum engine was put on hold to instead work on the 1m vac engine suitable for payloads and also because our experience with the Progeny Mk7 made us want to get more TVC engineering data from the Mk8 for a fully TVC Ascension Mk4 by 2022
in putting together the Ascension Mk3 mission report timeline (kerbalspace.agency/?p=11619), since it is the first, we go all the way back thru the rocket’s development as well. That reminded us of this tweet outlining the Mk3’s design goals. What happened to the TVC vacuum engine?
the Viklun stage & Kerbin III have been transported via rail back to KSC after arriving in port at Umbarg on Sunday. We still have to confirm that Kerbin III remains fit for flight but visual inspection looks good. Entire Viklun stage will need to be rebuilt but that was expected
we are working on a full launch video but here is a look at initial ascent and booster drop from the ground tracking cam atop the Tracking Station & cam atop the crew tower. Bonus to upper-stage recovery is that we will get high FPS video from the booster camera for once!
our crew did not miss the launch and are excited to one day ride this rocket up into orbit. Several years ago they didn’t know for sure if they’d even get to take a ride up into space yet! The final frontier is broadening bit by bit…
post-launch operations wrapping up with the final booster heading back to the VAB where it will be inspected with the others before being shipped back to Periapsis Co. in Umbarg for refurbishment. Rocket should be back at KSC by Tuesday