Tag Archive: Progeny Mk6 Block I Flight 16

Dec 18 2020

Operations Summary – Weeks of 12/7 & 12/14/20

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Behind the Scenes, News, Operations Summary

Minmus Next to Mun's Shadow (12/5/20)
Although we've featured numerous photos of Mun and Minmus sharing the sky together this is a bit different as its shadow passes by Minmus during a kerbolar eclipse over KSC

Off to the Pad (12/7/20)
A Progeny Mk6 Block I makes its way slowly from the HAB out to the launch pad, passing behind rather than in front of Launch Control in order to have an easier time turning towards the pad

Aligned and Ready (12/7/20)
A Progeny Mk6 Block I rocket waits for launch, aimed southeast to avoid the inner radiation belt as it travels through space. It will easily clear the lighting towers although it is not directly pointed at any of them

Progeny Mk6 Block I No.17 (12/8/20)
Carrying student experiments up into space for the Kerbal Sounding Program, launching to the southeast to avoid the inner radiation belt, following the same flight path as the 4th rocket of this type back in 2018

Thin Blue Shield (12/10/20)
That's the atmosphere, all 70km of it, protecting us from the harshness of space. Incredible

Celestrial String (12/13/20)
The four brightest plants Eve, Jool, Sarnus and Moho visible well into the dawn light, with Mun up top for good measure

Topping Off the Top (12/14/20)
A tanker truck pumps fuel and oxidizer up into the tanks atop the third stage of the Progeny Mk6 Block II as it undergoes a wet dress rehearsal in readiness for launch

Perfect Launch Weather - If Only... (12/15/20)
Looking down at KSC (yellow dot) the space center sits near the middle of a high-pressure region bringing clear skies but due to tanking issues yesterday that resulted in an explosion damaging the rocket, there will be no Progeny Mk6 Block II launch today to close out 2020

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Tags: Ascension, Ascension Mk1, Ascension Mk1 Flight 15, Ascension Mk2, Ascension Mk3, Ascension Mk3 Flight 1, Block I, Block II, Extremis, Extremis I, KBHigh, KBLow, Kerbal Sounding Project, KerBalloon, Kerbin II, Kerbin III, Mk1-B Capsule, Progenitor, Progeny Mk6, Progeny Mk6 Block I Flight 16, Progeny Mk6 Block I Flight 17, Progeny Mk6 Block II Flight 4, Progeny Mk8, Progeny Mk8 Flight 1

Dec 04 2020

Operations Summary – Weeks of 11/23 & 11/30/20

Categories:

Behind the Scenes, News, Operations Summary

Progeny Mk6 Pad Preparation (11/23/20)
The launch base that holds the Progeny Mk6 has been moved out to the launch pad, replacing the four support arms that were used for holding up the Mk7-B

Skeeter Static Fire (11/24/20)
The engines to be used for the lifter stage of the Progeny Mk8 get tested together on our vertical test stand to work out fuel flow issues to multiple engines. They are spaced apart widely so they do not impinge on each other. Now that they are running okay after several days of testing, we will start to move them closer and then bring in the remaining 4 engines 2 at a time

Launch Day (11/25/20)
A Progeny Mk6 Block I sits on the pad, fueled and ready to lift off later in the day

Progeny Mk6 Block I No.16 (11/25/20)
Heading direct east, the rocket carries two student-designed experiments built with help from industry mentors on the 5th mission for the Kerbal Sounding Project that debuted back at the end of 2019

Sarnus and Duna Appulse (11/26/20)
Captured by the new telescope at the Kongo River Research Base, the two planets pass close enough to resolve them both along with Ike and the major moons of Sarnus - Eeloo, Slate and Tekto

Kongo Observatory (11/26/20)
This new telescope fills in a gap that was lacking sky coverage between Arekibo and Kravass. Moho is just above the horizon with Jool higher up. Sarnus and Duna are at their closest apparent distance, or appulse, as seen only from this observatory

Temple of the Lost (11/26/20)
An unknown group of kerbs that we stumbled across in early 2019 has avoided contact since and a recent expedition sent to locate them came across this temple. Its purpose is still unknown but was definitely constructed within the past 200 years after the asteroid impact and has been used recently

Supervolcano Caldera (11/27/20)
The rim of the caldera is visible waaay off in the distance, the caldera is roughly 60km in diameter and this low-altitude KerBalloon was released near the center. It will look to detect any volcanic gases in the atmosphere to determine if the caldera is still in any way active. So far the expedition sent to explore this area has not found any active venting

Asteroids of November 2020 (12/1/20)
with 4 known asteroid encounters at the start of November, ending with only 6 total with one impact was nice. Not the lowest of the year tho (4). December is looking to be more on average with 10 already known to be incoming

Mun Occults Eve (12/3/20)
This is actually a pretty rare event due to several reasons. One, you need to be at the right place on Kerbin at sunrise. Two, Mun has to be in the right position. Three and most importantly, Eve has to be in the right position. Eve being able to slip behind Mun depends on it being 1) far enough from the sun to be seen and 2) low enough along its inclined orbit not to miss Mun entirely

Kongo River Source (12/4/20)
Looking down from just before the terminator, Kerbin II spies the source of the mighty Kongo River, longest on Kerbin. Here at the foot of the mountains is the research base that allows for surface exploration to be carried out on this continent. Although Kerbin II could see higher and further along the river during its inclined orbit, the high point occurs over the night side currently

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Tags: Ascension, Ascension Mk2, Block I, Kerbin II, Progenitor, Progeny Mk6, Progeny Mk6 Block I Flight 16

Nov 25 2020

Progeny Mk6 Block I Flight 16 (Kerbal Sounding Project 5)

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Mission Dispatch

KSP returns to close out the year, sending student projects up into space – or not? Unfortunately this mission did not go as planned when the second stage decided it didn’t want to go to space today

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Tags: 0.35m, 0.625m, Block I, Fail, Kerbal Sounding Project, Kerbin, kOS, Liquid Fuel, Oxidizer, Probe, Progenitor, Progeny Mk6, Progeny Mk6 Block I Flight 16, Solid Fuel, Splashdown, Sub-Orbital

Nov 20 2020

Operations Summary – Weeks of 11/9 & 11/16/20

Categories:

Behind the Scenes, News, Operations Summary

Ascension Mk3 Finalized (11/10/20)
The spacecraft will be the first capable of carrying kerbals into orbit as well as probes to other planets

Clearer Sunrise (11/14/20)
Out first orbital photo from Kerbin I was of a sunrise but the camera was damaged from unplanned travel through the outer radiation belt and the image quality was not great. We have now rectified this with a crisp image from Kerbin II

Duna & Jool Appulse (11/15/20)
On a dark Mun-less night, taken from the deck of the Astronaut Complex looking west shortly after sunset. Jool and Duna pass each other in the night sky

Peeking into Shadow (11/17/20)
Looking over the terminator Kerbin II spies Minmus next to a red Mun, currently deep in Kerbin's shadow undergoing an eclipse. The red light bending through the atmosphere still strikes it and colors it so

Luciole Vacuum Engine Test (11/18/20)
The rocket company that is designing the Progeny Mk8, set to debut in 2021, has begun to test its vacuum engine - just for function of course not performance. Note the plume under-expansion due to air pressure. In space the plume will expand to properly fit the nozzle and produce as much as 12kN of thrust

Busy HAB (11/18/20)
The Progenitor program is making use of the ample space withing the Horizontal Assembly Building to put together the three Progeny Mk6 rockets that will capping of our operational year this month and December

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Tags: Ascension, Ascension Mk3, Ascension Mk3 Flight 1, Block I, Block II, Extremis, Extremis I, KBHigh, KBLow, KerBalloon, Kerbin II, Kerbin III, Monolith, Progenitor, Progeny Mk6, Progeny Mk6 Block I Flight 16, Progeny Mk7-A Flight 3, Progeny Mk7-A Flight 4, Progeny Mk7-B, Progeny Mk8, Progeny Mk8 Flight 1

Nov 06 2020

Operations Summary – Weeks of 10/26 & 11/2/20

Categories:

Behind the Scenes, News, Operations Summary

Final Stacking (10/26/20)
The payload for the fourth and final Progeny Mk7-B is lifted atop the rocket in the HAB to check loading prior to laying it horizontal for final checkouts and loading up onto the carry vehicle

Dawn Over KSC (10/26/20)
We just wanted a nice cover photo for our Around KSC Album. Taken from the hills west of the space center

Staring into the Abyss (10/27/20)
While on the dark side of Kerbin we turned Kerbin II's camera to face out into deep space and a long exposure captured our home nebula in stunning detail

the Kerbal Sounding Project returns to end the year with some sub-orbital rocket missions carrying experiments designed by advanced level students!

An exciting addition to this year's KSP launch lineup is a flight on a Block II to send back data from high up in space

Moho Transit February 2020
Moho's ascending node is near its perikelion, or nearest distance from the sun, which means transits at this point take the shortest. Each position shown is an hour of movement. The sun rotates a good deal in this time but the current surface shown is visible during the transit. Mun was actually in the process of moving off the sun after an eclipse, its position is shown at the start of the transit

New Topper (10/28/20)
This final Progeny Mk7-B will carry aloft an actual payload to test a prototype small satellite probe core that could be put into orbit by the Mk8 in 2021

Progeny Mk7-B No.4 (10/29/20)
The final flight of the Mk7-B was the first to use pre-flown hardware with its first stage solid rocket motor being the same one that launched the first one in August. This is a major step forward in reusability and lowering launch costs but there is still a long road ahead

Second Recovery (10/29/20)
Dropping into the bay north of KSC, which is just over the horizon, this booster that came off a Progeny Mk7-B rocket was the first previously-flown engine to be re-used in flight

Luciole Bot Probe Deployment (10/30/20)
Sent off from the payload truss atop a Progeny Mk7-B yesterday, which was rotating just enough after MECO that the camera was able to see over the 0.35->0.625m adapter cone as it drifted away. This was the first test for the probe that could be launched into orbit in 2021 on a Mk8

Moho Transit November 2020 (11/2/20)
Moho's descending node is near its apkelion, or furthest distance from the sun, which means transits at this point take the longest. Each position shown is an hour of movement. The sun rotates a good deal in this time but the current surface shown is visible during the transit

Over Into Darkness (11/3/20)
Kerbin II transitions from day to night, crossing the terminator, looking towards the south pole hoping to catch sight of any aurora but kerbolar activity seems to be at a low currently

50+ Progenitor Launches (11/3/20)
At the time of this image the count is at 53 however we don't include the Mk1-B air launch in the above collage and the early Mk1 launches were repetitive and we did not photograph them all. So there is actually 50 photos in the collage

Rockets & Planets (11/5/20)
The western sky just after sunset over the Rocket Garden on the main KSC lawn is dominated by three of the brightest planets Eve, Jool and Sarnus (the fourth being Moho, currently to the east at sunrise). You almost miss Duna between Eve and Jool

Asteroids of October 2020 (11/5/20)
10 known space rocks came whizzing through our SOI this month and 2 of them didn't make it back out. This is very good considering the month began with 8 expected encounters

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Tags: Ascension, Ascension Mk2, Block I, Block II, Kerbal Sounding Project, Kerbin II, Progenitor, Progeny Mk6, Progeny Mk6 Block I Flight 16, Progeny Mk6 Block I Flight 17, Progeny Mk6 Block II Flight 4, Progeny Mk7-A Flight 4, Progeny Mk7-B

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Kerbal Space Agency
@KSA_MissionCtrl

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

Thu Feb 18 11:57 EST 2021

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Kerbal Space Agency
@KSA_MissionCtrl

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

Thu Feb 18 11:56 EST 2021

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Kerbal Space Agency
@KSA_MissionCtrl

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

Thu Feb 18 09:37 EST 2021

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Kerbal Space Agency
@KSA_MissionCtrl

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

Thu Feb 18 09:36 EST 2021

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Kerbal Space Agency
@KSA_MissionCtrl

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

Wed Feb 17 16:23 EST 2021

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Kerbal Space Agency
@KSA_MissionCtrl

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

Wed Feb 17 13:41 EST 2021

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Kerbal Space Agency
@KSA_MissionCtrl

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

Wed Feb 17 13:40 EST 2021

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Kerbal Space Agency
@KSA_MissionCtrl

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

Wed Feb 17 13:39 EST 2021

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Kerbal Space Agency
@KSA_MissionCtrl

some Ascension Mk2 bit.ly/KSARecords have now been claimed by the Mk3:

(previous record)
Heaviest Rocket Launched, Minus Payload: 19.862t (17.5t)
Heaviest Payload Launched, Orbital Trajectory: 1.662t (767kg)
Tallest Rocket Launched: 16.782m (16.212m)

Wed Feb 17 10:40 EST 2021

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Kerbal Space Agency
@KSA_MissionCtrl

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

Tue Feb 16 17:58 EST 2021

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Kerbal Space Agency
@KSA_MissionCtrl

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

Tue Feb 16 17:57 EST 2021

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Kerbal Space Agency
@KSA_MissionCtrl

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

Tue Feb 16 14:22 EST 2021

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Kerbal Space Agency
@KSA_MissionCtrl

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?

Tue Feb 16 14:21 EST 2021

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Kerbal Space Agency
@KSA_MissionCtrl

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

Tue Feb 16 11:12 EST 2021

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Kerbal Space Agency
@KSA_MissionCtrl

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!

Mon Feb 15 12:13 EST 2021

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Kerbal Space Agency
@KSA_MissionCtrl

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…

Sun Feb 14 16:57 EST 2021

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Kerbal Space Agency
@KSA_MissionCtrl

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

Sat Feb 13 18:45 EST 2021

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Tag Archive: Progeny Mk6 Block I Flight 16

Operations Summary – Weeks of 12/7 & 12/14/20

Operations Summary – Weeks of 11/23 & 11/30/20

Progeny Mk6 Block I Flight 16 (Kerbal Sounding Project 5)

Operations Summary – Weeks of 11/9 & 11/16/20

Operations Summary – Weeks of 10/26 & 11/2/20

Upcoming Events (UTC)

KSA Main Image Gallery

Latest Updates from Mission Control

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