R-5 MAKES WAVES

KSP - Day 19

After R-4's somewhat amusing adventure, the boffins down at KSC made a quick redesign of the next R-Series probe, R-5. The aim of the mission was to have the probe separate from the RT-10 booster and return safely to Kerbin. That did not do happen for R-4, so it will be interesting to see how they tackle the problem.

A spokesman from the KSC told us:

'This is early stages of the project, so we don't have a lot available to us at the moment. Solid-fuel rocket boosters have their problems, which has been made apparent through this testing phase. We have been concentrating on a different method of propulsion, which we hope to test soon. As a result, solid-fuel variants are limited. And a redesign of this two-stage rocket test meant discarding the second over-powered RT-10.
    The purpose of this particular mission is to determine whether a successful separation and recover can be achieved. With this in mind, the probe itself has been modified to carry four much smaller SRB's, which were originally designed for a different use. But they are sufficient to serve the purpose of the mission.'

R-5 stood on the launchpad with a much more familiar appearance than R-4. The four additional boosters that would act as the second stage were clamped onto the probe with somewhat of a slap-dash appearance. But looks aren't everything. If all goes to plan, then we can expect to see the R-5 probe float gently back down into the ocean on a newly-developed parachute system. 

R-5 on the pad, the four small boosters are difficult to see in the picture

The launch went smoothly and R-5 reached an altitude of 12km with a speed of 600m/s with 9G's of acceleration before it ran out of fuel. The stack-separator ejected the RT-10 booster to the depths of the ocean while the R-5 probe's four motors sent the vehicle further upward.

R-5's final altitude was 24.7km and the boosters increased it's speed to over 700m/s with an acceleration of 14G's. At T+3:15 the parachute deployed, with the probe successfully splashing down gently into the sea a couple of minutes later.

Gene Kerman said with a smile: 'Now, that's how it was supposed to work. I'd forgotten how to breath until I saw that parachute open up. That was a beautiful way to end the R-Series test runs.'

The view of R-5 and it's parachute from the retrieval ship

A map showing the splash-down zones of the R-Series rockets. R-4 is not shown as it broke up in the atmosphere. Note the northerly R-2 location following it's launch failure.

With Gene stating the end of the R-Series rockets, and information on a new propulsion system in development, we look forward to the next phase of testing.