Kerbal Aerospace Institute - Newsfeed

[rawghi]

WEBSITE   TWITTER
 

Following the path of illustrious precursors, I've created a new fictional agency along with a dedicated website and a Twitter account. This is a reboot of my previous "test plan" (forum thread here) where instead of rushing, I wanted to take a slow and more realistic approach. This forum threat will serve as a "heads up" for the news that will be posted on the website, and the Twitter profile will serve as another quick news way to post my progress. 
It will be a career focused on a realistic approach, not gameplay based (i.e. funds, missions and so on will be edited depending on the situation) keeping the KSP vanilla solar system, with a tons of mods.
I hope that you'll enjoy reading as I'm enjoying doing it.

A particular thanks goes to @Drew Kerman for all his suggestions and review of my work, thanks to him the new KAI reboot is much more beautiful and appealing to the readers.

 

 

Edited December 16, 2016 by rawghi

[rawghi]

 

KAI OPERATIONS STARTED TODAY

DAY 0 – KAI operations started today with a big celebration at the official opening of the KAI Space Center. A crowd of employees, journalist, politicians, private sector enterpreneur and simply curious gathered at the Center and the inauguration ceremony started with the KAI Administrator, Wernher Von Kerman, addressing the attendees.

“Today we mark the start of this big adventure, thanks to the support of the United Nations of Kerbin and the hard work of many people during these last years. Without all of these people efforts, no matter the timetables, we now have a complex that allow us to research, build and launch assets for our missions in our strive to explore both the universe and our home planet.”

During his speech, that lasted approximately fifteen minutes, Von Kerman emphasized the concept of “peaceful” exploration, with all the nations of our homeworld united, for the benefit of all. After Von Kerman it was the time for various UNK figures that explained the process behind the creation of the KAI itself and the plan for the realization of the Space Center. The day was marked as “Day Zero” and the celebration lasted for the full morning, leaving the afternoon for seminars, conferences and various guided tour of the facilities. Special attention was given to the Vehicle Assembly Building and the Mission Control, where Gene Kerman, main Flight Director of KAI operations, explained and analyzed how the flight controllers work was developed and the actual processes.

At the Astronaut Complex, various staff members showcased the training rooms and living quarters for the Kerbonauts but there wasn’t anyone of them because tomorrow will be the official presentation of the “First Four”. Walt Kerman, current director for Public Relations, closed the day in a final speech, explaining that the upcoming priority will be to define a roadmap for programs and developments that will last probably during the course of the first year of operations.

We are happy to have you readers onboard with us in this great adventure in the exploration of space, stay tuned!

Edited December 16, 2016 by rawghi

[NSEP]

Nice! Im tuned for it!

[rawghi]

FIVE WAR-ERA H-2 ROCKETS SHIPPED

DAY 1 – After yesterday inauguration, it’s now time for eveyone to start working on their task. We had a clear day at the Center and while managers are closed in the admin building since the early morning, our operations boys receive their first shipment from the UNK representatives.

A couple of trucks made their way to the VAB and unloading operations started, the content of the shipping was nothing but 5 war-era H-2 rockets, the infamous retaliation weapon that was used during the Second Kerbin War and was developed (obviously, conditions were different and he had not a choice) by our lead scientist and administrator Wernher Von Kerman. The five H-2 was reassembled and refreshed by Kerbodyne which also take the ownership in the warhead removal, so now the explosion risk is lesse but always present due to the fact that the rockets are fueled by liquid propellant (liquid fuel and oxi).

The rockets were unloaded and stored on the VAB, the acquisition is important for the Institute because, at war-time, some of these manage to reach the space, hence they would be the perfect choice before starting to develop our own rockets from scratch. The Space Administration department will be responsible for the handling and we heard rumors about a possible first program tailored on the H-2 testing. We were able to write down all the specs of the H-2 on a dedicate page that you can check here.

Gus Kerman, our Operations Director, managed to pass by the VAB between one meeting and the another and checked that the storing of the rockets was done the proper way, he was worried about positioning and piling, something that, to be honest, happened outside the VAB during the unloading operation. We’ll let you know how things will develop in the following days.

[rawghi]

FIRST FOUR KERBONAUTS TALK TO THE PRESS

DAY 2 – The plan today was the official presentation of the first four Kerbonauts of the Institute. These valiant four kerbals, named “The Fab Four” are three guys and a lady and their name are Jebediah Kerman, Valentina Kerman, Bill Kerman and Bob Kerman. They were selected from a huge pool of applicants, which were all eager to become the first kerbals in space.

“The selection process was long and hard” – stated Jebediah Kerman – “everyone was super intrigued by the adventure that awaits us, and discovering to be part of the first four was just great”. The selection process started more than one year ago, we wanted to hire the best of the best, both in terms of phisical and mental fitness.

Mortimer Kerman, one of our directors that supervisioned the process during an interview added that “these four guys are just awesome, I think we made the right choice. But everyone must be aware that space is our final goal, between having the feet on the ground and floating on space a sea of perils, trials and tests awaits us, hence, these four are also the most professionals of the huge number of people the crowded the selection process”.

The four kerbonauts had a press conference that lasted more than an hour where the journalists goes wild about the details regarding the selection process and the expectations of the kerbonauts, after which a photosession was taken in front of the astronaut complex.

In the meantime, details about the plans for the first missions was not yet socialized, and we will know more probably in the afternoon.

[rawghi]

PRESS RELEASE: KAI ROADMAP FOR THE FIRST HALF

DAY 3 – We are glad to announce today the plans for the first half of the year for the Kerbal Aerospace Institute. The activities involved will be distributed between the three departments and will start immediately following the roadmap that will be described in this very release.

After carefully reviewing the current situation of the Institute and considering the current kerbalkind general knowledge about our homeplanet and the universe, we agreed that the initial effort must be focused on improving our local land, atmospheric and space knowledge and the development of the necessary assets. The fund allocated by the UNK allows us to have all our departments working in parallel along with establishing the necessary partnership with the private sector. We strongly believe that the goal that we will outline will be the cornerstone for all the future effort of the Insitute, and will allow us to project in the second half of the year with the necessary drive to achieve the technological level required for the achivement of the first steps in exploring the universe.

The first half of the year roadmap, will be referred as the “Milestone One” and will be composed by the following programs:

ANCESTRY PROGRAM – Space Administration
The program will be focused on perform testing and measurement of the five H-2 rockets available at the Space Center. This will allow our scientist and engineer to develop the necessary  knowledge to develop our own rockets.
UPLIFT PROGRAM – Space Administration
The program will follow the Ancestry Program, and its aim wil be to design, build and launch sounding rockets able to reach space, perform scientific measurement, and return safely to Kerbin.
BREEZE PROGRAM – Aerospace Laboratories
The program goals are the development of four different propeller planes to be used in future experiments and measurement. The aircrafts will be: an ultralight single seated plane, a single seated-high performance plane, a multiseated propeller plane with a scientific variant, and finally a light transport plane.
ADVENTURER PROGRAM – Skunkworks
The program will be focused in the development and testing of a single seated rover and a multi seated rover, that will allow our personnel to explore the Green Coast and its surroundings.
SUMMIT PROGRAM – Skunkworks
The Summit Program will revolve around the launch of air balloons for the study of the atmosphere

The Milestone One expiry date will be set for Day 220 of Year 1, the allocated budget will be a total of 3.000.000 K$ and will be divided accordigly to the following graph:

All KAI departments are authorized to begin the operations tomorrow, when departments managers will assign the specific tasks and activities.

Dedicated page about the assets and the single programs will be available on the website in the following days, along with the schedule of the operations and their status. We are eager to start our journey at the discovery of our universe.

Edited December 19, 2016 by rawghi

[rawghi]

ANCESTRY PROGRAM READY TO START

DAY 4 – After yesterday press-release about the upcoming roadmaps and the plans for the first programs of the Institute, all our engineers started working on their assignments and we can start publishing the details about our missions.

The first one that you can explore and read about (here) is the Ancestry Program, a series of four mission that will be performed using the H-2 rockets that we received and stored in the last days. The H-2 is the perfect assets that we need to study both the propulsion systems and the aerodynamic profile of a rockets, and this will allow us to start designing our own rockets (planned for the Uplift Program) not from scratch but with some expertise and knowledge acquired for free (if we don’t want to consider the lives of dead Kerbals killed with the H-2 when it was used as a weapon).

As mentioned, the program will be composed only by four missions, the first one dedicated only to the ground testing of the RM-3GU rocket motor which will be performed in two days from the launchpad, for this reason, our engineers are already at work in developing a containment frame for immobilizing the rocket to the ground when the motor will be fired.

Overall, the Ancestry program is set to end on day 15 when the last test will be performed, and from that moment on the Uplift Program will start.

All the other programs in the Milestone 1 will be fully detailed on these page in the following days, in the meantime, you can check the missions patches on our Program Page.

Edited December 20, 2016 by rawghi

[rawghi]

DAY 5 OPERATIONS SUMMARY (click to view on the website)

DAY 5 - Tomorrow the first test of the Ancestry Program, called Ancestry-1, will be held at the launchpad. The test will see an H-2 rocket mounted in a special frame designed specifically for testing the RM-3GU rocket motor, developed at record time by our engineers (basically in a couple of days).

The frame will feature mainly an iternal containment section where the force applied by the motor will be measured to determine the exact engine specifications, as the rocket will be besically attached by a piston. A camera and an illumination system is also connected along with a ground anchor that will keep the platform stable through the motor ignition.

In the meantime, the other departments (Space Administration is managing the H-2) are working on their assigned tasks: the Aeronautics Labs, working on the Breeze Program, confirms that they may have the first ultralight propeller plane available for testing on day 60, but currently we're only on the design phase; the same happens to the Skunkworks that are focused instead on Adventurer Program and the design of the first rover, that they think will be able to be tested on day 50.

As an heads-up, we announce that we shared the Inventory page, where our reader can review the current Institute planes, rockets, etc.. items in stock, and a list of upcoming events on the frontpage as a widget.

[rawghi]

H-2 MOTOR TESTS SUCCEEDED (click to view on the website)

DAY 6 – We finally started today our first operation at the center with the Ancestry-1 mission, a test in reality, of the RM-3GU rocket motor that is installed on the H-2 rocket. For the test, a special purpose platform was installed on the launchpad, and an H-2 rocket (with the nosecone removed) attached to it. This testing frame allowed for the measurement of the thrust that the motor is able to provide and at the same time provided a base to keep the H-2 on the ground.

In the early morning, engineers installed the platform at the launchpad, and kept it circa 1 meter above the ground to prevent that eventual attrition will ruin tests data. Then it was the time to remove the H-2 nosecone and attach the rocket to the platform. At 4:00 everything was set, so after nearly half an hour, from mission control we started the countdown to the ignition.

At 4:35:36 the CU-24B core unit of the rocket ws powered on and three seconds later the engine was ignited and throttlet ad 1%. The readings were nominal so the motor was slowly throttled up, until it reached 25%, 50% and 100% after 1 minute and 46 seconds from the ignition.

During that phase, readings confirmed a peak of 35.2 kN of thrust and a specific impulse of 255.4s, plus we get the feeling of handling a reliable rocket as everything goes totally smoothly during the tests with the core unit relaying throttle command to the motor.

At 2 minutes and 9 seconds, the motor shutted down as the propellant was depleted (the oxidizer was depleted seconds before the liquid fuel). After waiting nearly 20 minutes to have all the parts cooled down, the platform was disassembled and the H-2 was then stored on the VAB.

This successful tests is actually the first one performed by us so we’re pretty happy about everything going exactly as we planned, next test will be Ancestry-2 and it will be the first one were we will light the H-2 this time for a real flight.

You can view the full mission report on its specific page.

[rawghi]

INCOMING LAUNCH AND STATUS REPORT  (click to view on the website)

DAY 8 – Today we loaded the second H-2 rocket on one of our yellow utility truck and moved towards the launchpad for the incoming Ancestry-2 mission launch. The mission will feature the rocket ignited and launched towards the high atmosphere with half propellant than the maximum available, for safety reasons. After the test of the RM-3GU motor it’s now tome to light this candle and see how well it will perform, since it’s more than ten years than this rockets aren’t launched (luckily) in the sky.

This H-2 rocket, (H2-S2 the serial number, one of the five shipped some days ago), was fitted with telemetry instruments that will transmit back the altitude and the velocity of the rocket as soon as it will cimb in the atmosphere, plus, we decided to add a camera for taking shots directly from the rocket. The camera is a b/w one, the Maniacal Mallard Industry NavCam® and images will relayed back to the tracking station.

In the meantime, our others departments are not standing still, both the Aeronautics Labs and the Skunkworks report progresses in their tasks and we will probably have specific details after the Ancestry Program will be finished. But we can anticipate that at the hangar a shipment containing aeronautical parts arrived. In one of them, the engine that will propel the first plane of the Breeze program, a KASRE-PT6 “Guthrie” Turbo-Prop engine from the famous aeronautics firm Armstrong, Siddeley and Royce Engineering (ASRE).

We will see with what king of design our guys will end up, in the meantime the final operations for the Ancestry-2 launch are in progress and we can just receive confirmation that, upon a successfull launch, we will get additional funds from the UKN.

[rawghi]

H-2 TEST REACHED SPACE  (click to view on the website)

DAY 9 – Today we assisted something incredible at the KSC, we reached space, unexpectedly, during the Ascent-2 mission thanks to a war-era H-2 rocket. But let’s dvelve deep in what happened today.

Our plan was to launch an H-2 rocket, as part of the Ancestry program, specifically the Ascent-2 mission. The mission was a test to conduct measurement on a vertical launch of the rocket, fueled with half propellant because we wanted to prevent a catastrophic explosion if something went wrong. The rocket was towed yesterday at the launchpad and the ignition was set to take place at 5.00.00. This was our first “real” mission as the previous one was merely a test of the rocket motor achored at the ground, so we had the mission control hyped about testing the commlink between the craft, the tracking station and the MCC.

During the countdown, Gene Kerman, our flight director called for a delay as we had a no-go from our INCO officer (Integrated Communications) that experienced some problems in setting up the last parameter of the Graphotron CPU, the chip mounted inside the H-2 rocket control unit. Along the Graphotron, we also mounted on the H-2 a black and white camera, always under INCO responsibility with the intent of shots high altitude pictures.

Our engineer estimated that, with the propellant available, the rocket should have surpassed the 50,000 meters in altitude, so everyone expect to reach the high atmosphere and then see the rocket tiltind and splashing on the ocean, as we planned to have it guided towards east, to prevent it from falling back to the space center.

The delay lasted 1 minute, and at 5:01:00 the H-2 was ignited and started its acent towards the sky, climbing rapidly and surpassing the 50,000 meters after 1 minute and 30 seconds. During the flight all the readings were nominal hence FLIGHT (the flight controller, Gene Kerman) allowed the guidance officer (GUIDO) to not call for the shutdown of the motor when we estimated that it should have surpassed the 50km and leaving the H-2 climbing anyway.

At 5:03:25, 2 minutes and 25 seconds after the ignition, the rocket touched the apogee of the flight reaching 71,666 meters, surpassing the so called “Kerman Line” (the altitude where the space should begin) that is set at 70,000.

Then the H-2 started its descent and it was seen splashing in the sea at an incredible speed due to the aerodynamic shape and no parachutes to slow it down (it was a war rocket hence the reason why it should hit hard the ground). During all the flight we was able to take pictures from the onboard camera and all the readings were exceptionally clear.

The outcome was so unexpected that we literally celebrate this first achievement, even Wernher Von Kerman did not expect this incredible performance of the H-2. Later measurement revealed that all our calculations didn’t expect to have such an high momentum after the motor shutted down. During its flight, the H-2 reached the incredible speed of 977m/s (3,517 km/h) and it splashed 15km east of the KSC, enduring in the process a total Gee force of 5.3G.

Today’s launch was a total success, and we plan to continue all our testing with this incredible rocket in the upcoming launches. You can view further images and details about the mission here.

 

[rawghi]

UPLIFT INSIGHTS AND PARACHUTES TESTED  (click to view on the website)

DAY 10 – As the Ancestry program progressed, with all our engineers working in the H-2, our board of directors is shaping the future of the upcoming Uplift program, which is its natural continuation. In the Uplift program the plan is to build our own rocket, basing our knowledge on the H-2 and the measurement that we recorded during Ancestry flights. This is an important step because it means that we have fully mastered the basic concept of the rocketry and we may be able to send one in an orbital flight.

Based on the minutes from the board, plans are to test various scenarios, like using liquid vs solid propellant and performing the first multistage tests. The multistage concept is something that help our rockets to climb with only the necessary mass, discarding empty tanks and fuselages, hence many of our engineers and scientists are favorable to following this path.

But today it was a particular day dedicated to the safety of our kerbonauts, in fact, nearly at midday, we tested the parachute that we plan to equip our crew during atmospheric flight, and the test goes perfectly. The plan was to have Jebediah Kerman, which experience as a military test pilot targeted him as the best choice, jumping from atop of our tallest structure, the VAB, while deploying the chute.

Obviously at the base of the VAB there was some safety nets and an elastic rope prevented him to smash hard on the ground if something goes bad but there was no need as the chute deployed effectively and Jeb landed safely. The chute will be used mainly during the Breeze program where we will have our crew piloting real aircraft, not falling from high buildings.

[rawghi]

ANCESTRY-3 PLAGUED BY ELECTRICAL PROBLEMS   (click to view on the website)

DAY 12 – After the successful second test of Ancestry-2, today’s mission, Ancestry-3, was marked as a “partial success” by our MCC due to electrical problems that blocked the retrieval of the telemetry data acquired by the onboard Graphotron TelUnit. The launch was planned for the 5.00.00 but as happened for the previous launch, it was delayed, this time only by 11 seconds by double checks on system integrity.

The plan for the mission was to acquire telemetry data of the flight of the H-2 with a trajectory that would have put the rocket in a situation where an orbital injection could have been made (not certainly with an H-2 rocket), henche the choice of, instead launching totally vertical, take a curved trajectory to improve the fuel efficency increasing the lateral velocity, the requirement for a stable orbit.

After the aforementioned delay, the H-2 was ignited and after a brief wobbling on the launchpad (that we suspect was caused by the fact that the H-2 can stay vertical without support, and when the engine starts the fuel flow was not optimal) the rocket climbed taking the expected trajectory and reaching an apogee of 80 km. During the ascent the guidance was perfect but at the apogee we had 3 seconds of fuel left and we wanted to test a prograde burn to mimic the initial phase of an orbital injection but the maneuver failed due to the fact that the rocket inclination was not optimal and the onboad core unit was not able to stabilize the H-2 nose before the descent.

At that time, the mission plan was to retrieve the telemetry package from the onboard Graphotron but the unit did not responded, even after multiple attempt. At some point, the rocket entered a blackout that our scientist supposed was caused by the plasma generated by the heat of the rocket impacting the atmosphere. We were able to take a shot from the onboard camera some seconds before the blackout. Unfortunately, we were not able to restore communication with the H-2 (that was not built to accomplish this kind on mission however) and we receive news of a splashdown in the ocean minutes later.

Despite the good ascent phase, the lack of precise telemetry from the rocket forced us to mark the mission as a partial success. More details can be found on the mission report page.

[rawghi]

UPLIFT ROADMAP DEFINED

DAY 14 – While tomorrow the last Ancestry launch will take place, with the fourth mission where we want to retrieve telemetry data of a guided ascent, from our board of directors the roadmap of the Uplift program has been defined and is available on its dedicated page.

In the Uplift program we need to prove that the tests performed during the Ancestry H-2 trials gave us enough information to develop our own rocket, and launch it to space. The program will start with a series of tests aimed to verify that the assets that will be developed by our Space Administration department are enough reliable to first reach space and then reentry safely to the ground. As we discovered during the Ancestry-3 mission, there is a lot of heat generated by the reentry in the atmosphere and we have to find a way to limit the speed in the last phase, probably with parachutes.

As soon as our rocket will behave as expected, we plan to test its connectivity to our MCC while in space and if these testings gave us good results, we will then start mounting scientific equipment, and transmit the results back to ground in the first instance, and then moving to reenter the instruments itself safely back to the ground. For this first “exploration” phase of rocketry, our deadline is day 130 and then, if all the above goals will be met, we will spend the remaining 90 days allocated by the program roadmap to first develop a multistage rocket, and then create a rocket able to bring to space one ton of assets.

This last goal, the creation of a “launcher” rocket, will allow us to move to the next step, fill that ton with the first artificial satellite that will hopefully orbit Kerbin. But in the meantime, our focus will be anyway tomorrow Ancestry-4, so we will keep you posted of the outcome of our launch and closure of the first small program.

[rawghi]

ANCESTRY PROGRAM COMPLETED WITH THE FOURTH LAUNCH

DAY 15 – The Ancestry program was completed today with a flawless launch of the H-2 rocket. The goal was to retrieve the telemetry data that was lost in the previous mission, Ancestry-3. Today’s, the fourth, mark the completion of the program and all the data regarding aerodynamics and propulsion of the H-2 is now elaborated by our engineers that now need to focus on developing a sounding rocket that we can equip with more specific scientific instruments.

The launch today was performed exactly at 5.00.00 without any delay of kind. The rocket climbed in the atmosphere and we all the readings was nominal. At 5.02.59 the H-2 reached the space and some minutes later we retrieved all the telemetry data. During the ascent we observed an increase in the heating due to the air density, similar to the one happened during reentry that we were able to photograph. As for the previous launch, we incurred in the so-called plasma blackout but we were able to restore the communication before the splashdown on water, and we were able to observe that the aerodynamic fins was destroyed before the hit on the ocean. This is something important that we must keep in mind for future desings. The cause of the destruction is probably related to the heating or, eventually the high pressure that the fins are subject in the reentry that reached peak velocities of 1,630.6 m/s (5,868 km/h).

We now have in our inventory 2 H-2 rockets left, the first was the one disassambled for the Ancestry-1 engine test, while the second is the fifth that we received, that we want to keep intact for eventual future use. Now our engineers will start working on the Uplift program using all the data gained from Ancestry, which final outcome was briliant and allowed us to perform our first step towards exploring the space. You can see detailed information about today’s launch on the mission page.

[rawghi]

DAY 16 OPERATIONS SUMMARY

DAY 16 – Sixteen days passed since our inauguration and we’ve a lot of things moving, let’s sum up all the currenct activities at the KSC in these days, department per department!

We can start our recap talking about our Space Administration (SA) department: Ancestry program finished yesterday and they are already working on Uplift. With all the information acquired from the H-2 launches, they are designing our own first rocket that is planned to reach space on Day 35, an ambitious goal considering that they have less than twenty days to develop it. Based on what we’ve learned from Ancestry, to keep it small they probably go for a multistage design from scratch, but we’re pretty sure that we will see them testing assets in these days on the launchpad.
NOTE: We are trying to manage the goals and the deadlines better, current roadmap is mission-wise (Uplift-x do this, Uplift-x1 do that) instead our management is reconsidering the practice and set the goals with deadlines, while leaving the departments free to choose the optimal launch sequence.

The Aeronautics Labs are continuing their work on the Breeze program and the assembly of the first planes, and they are targeting day 60 for the first test, for this reason, our pilot kerbonauts, Jebediah Kerman and Valentina Kerman, are closely working with them at the SPH and conducting specific procedures training regarding take-off, landing, and general handling on the planes. We will have more details about the roadmap of the program soon but in the meantime we have the confirmation that all the test with parachutes went smoothly and each pilot will be equipped with one of these.

Skunworks instead are working on the Adventurer program, with a day 50 deadline of the showcase of a rover prototype. Last reports from the division was extremely good and stated that they are ahead of the schedule and they choosed to go with nuclear power to provide electricity for the rovers wheels. This time is kerbonaut Bill Kerman, engineer, which is assisting the departments colleague.

Bob Kerman, the last of the four kerbonauts, being a scientist, is most of the time closed in the R&D building and he’s actually investigating with a dedicated team the reading from the H-2 launches, in particular the “Plasma Blackout” effect that happened during the reentry of the rocket.

That’s all for this report, we will keep you posted, as always!

[rawghi]

NEW TELEMETRY DATA ACQUISITION THROUGH K-OS

DAY 17 – We are happy to announce that we setup a partnership today with Compotronix, the IT company proprietary of the k-OS operating system, for equipping our rockets with new systems for receiving telemetry data. After the H-2 rockets testings, we felt the need of obtaining more precise information about our flight and we contacted Compotronix which was more than welcome to stage some demo and, in the end, convince us that we’re taking the right path.

Compotronix worked in the last days with our Skunkworks engineers on developing a “demo” OS that is basically a clone of k-OS adapted for KAI purposes, which was named Pegasus OS. Pegasus will run on the CX-4181 CPU that we plan to install on vessels and will be able to leverage on radio connectivity to transmit telemetry data back to the MCC. This morning we tested it on an H-2 rocket on the launchpad (without effectively launching the rocket, as we decided to use the one mounted on the structural frame of Ancestry-1 test) and we run a telemetry software that returned all the necessary data to the MCC, confiming that the system is working as expected.

Gene Kerman, our main flight director, was impressed by the outcome and he told in an interview to local newspapers that we count of using this new technologies starting from the Uplift launches, but this will be beneficial not only for rockets that will go into space but also planes and rovers that need a precise data retrieval considering that we can also connect different sensors to Pegasus.

[rawghi]

EVERYTHING QUIET, EVERYONE WORKING

DAY 20 – There are not many thing happening at KSC in the last days, or better, from the outside, as inside the building everyone is keeping up with their activities and working had on their assigned tasks. We have the Space Administration finalizing the designs of the first Institute “homemade” rockets for the program Uplift goals, and we already made contact with different companies for the manufacturing of the needed components, specifically Kerbchem Industries, which will develop the fuselage of the rockets, and Umbra Space Industries for the Core Unit and Engine. Also, testing are being made for the integration with the new Compotronix CPU for telemetry data that we discussed previously.

On the hangar, much hype is generating around the first aircraft built from our Aeronautics Laboratories. We cannot unveil more details about it but we know that wind tunnel tests went well and the first prototype flight is confirmed for Day 60. The partnership with Armstrong, Siddeley and Royce Engineering (ASRE) for the engine is going great and we have information about discussion about “downgrading” the engine performance as it seems that its thrust is more than the needed for the airplane.

Skunkworks on the other hand has yet to reveal, even to internal personnel, details about the rover that we expect to take the field on Day 50, but what we know for sure is that they managed to have it nuclearly powered, so it will be a big achievement in term of start experimenting with long lasting energy sources.

[rawghi]

5 DAYS TO UPLIFT-1 LAUNCH

DAY 30 – It’s 5 days to the launch of the first rocket of the Uplift program and our engineers sent plans to both Umbra Space Industries and Kerbchem Industries for the final assembly of the first sounding rockets ever designed by the Institute. They are the Dart and the Dart-75 sounding rockets. The Dart is the “father” of a new family of rockets developed with the sole purpose to test the knowledge gained from the H-2 rockets tests and the 75 version is a small counterpart that will be used in the first launches for testing that everything is working nominal.

These rockets are made keeping in mind their purpose, testing, so they are quite simple to reduce the cost but they will be equipped with telemetry software and they also feature a small payload bay just below the nosecone that can be equipped with small scientific instruments. The rockets will be fired from the launchpad using a specific launch clamp that was designed internally. The 75 variant is expected to reach the edge of the atmosphere while instead the “full” Dart should be able to reach space and accomplish his main purpose of sending data back to the MCC, thanks to a small antenna that is smbedded in the core module.

We also defined the first four lanches, three of which will made with the 75 and then, the fourth with the Dart itself. Our engineers expect to have a variety of rockets from the Dart family as many interesting scenario can be explored, like the development of multistage rockets through testing with solid fuel boosters. Anyway, the assembly will take just a couple of days so we will have the first rockets back the the KSC at least before day 33. You can find detailed information on the first two rockets of the Dart family on our rockets section.

[rawghi]

UPLIFT-1 SUCCESSFULLY LAUNCHED

DAY 35 – We successfully launched today our first rocket, developed internally by the KAI engineers. After the experience acquired on the H-2 rockets, this morning at 5.00.00 the Dart-75 (which is a test variant of the bigger Dart rocket) was launched at the KSC with the intent of tests the performance along with acquire telemetry readings.
The launch was nominal and the rocket climbed powered by the E1-MAE aerospike rocket till an altitude of 24,145 meters before the fuel was depleted, then coasted till a final apogee of 38,604 meters before starting the final descent that saw the rocket splashing down on the ocean, 5 minutes and 44 seconds after the liftoff.

The rocket performed very well, matching our engineers expectation and the Compotronix telemetry module transmitted regularly the telemetry data to the MCC. Since the rocket didn’t entered in the plasma blackout phase, no interruption of the data flows was encountered. The maximum speed reached by the Dart 75 was 635 m/s, gained obviously just seconds before the fuel got totally depleted. After telemetry review, our engineers think that the rocket could have performed even better, this because in the initial climbing phase the terminal velocity could have limited the speed gain, thus the decision to limit the speed of the rocket in the initial climbing phase.

Now the next launch will be performed in two days and will see another Dart 75 on the launchpad. The number of Dart 75 requested to be produced by Umbra Space Industries and Kerbchem Industries was 6, and with today launch we have 5 left in our warehouse, along with three Dart. A detailed mission page can be found here.