Aquila VI - Full Mission

Описание: Welcome to the webcast of Aquila VI, the sixth crewed mission of the Aquila program, the second to be partially reusable, and the second land on a body in the outer Solar System. Aquila VI performed two landings on Julia, the outermost of the six moons of Nero, which is the largest and outermost of the three gas giants in the Ciro System. Julia is the only moon in the Ciro System to orbit in the opposite direction to a planets rotation (retrograde). The landings were performed on opposite sides of the moon.

Like Aquila V, two pilots were assigned to this mission (both rookies), one per spacecraft, due to Nero's extreme distance from Ciro, meaning onboard antennae cannot be used to communicate or transmit data. Also, a veteran scientist, who flew in space for a second time and previously flew on Aquila 4, was assigned, performing the second and third landings across two missions (first on Niven).

Unlike Aquila V, Aquila VI far exceeded mission requirements by successfully rendezvousing with the Salyut 8 space station and delivering science, ready for the next crew to live and work onboard the station, proving that precision re-entry and rendezvous is possible from far interplanetary space. Reliance re-entered the atmosphere three times before finally landing at Space Launch Complex 46 at 22:42:04 GMT. The landing was almost off target due to Reliance sustaining minor damage due to the loss of one of its four onboard monopropellant tanks and RCS thrusters.

Lift-off successfully occurred at 19:47:43 GMT at Space Launch Complex 46 on a Pisces SHR1 (Super Heavy Reusable) booster, named O'Shag-Hennessy, the largest in the fleet of fully reusable boosters, which was recovered at the same launch site shortly after payload separation. A previous attempt at 19:44:12 GMT failed.

The Volans stage was crashed into Julia after using up all its fuel to slow down once it reached Julia's sphere of influence. The lander was crashed into Nero's atmosphere.

ColumbaR callsign/name: Reliance
Lander callsign/name: Chickadee

Crew:
Commander (CDR) - Claurix (First spaceflight)
ColumbaR Pilot (CPT) - Cordo (First spaceflight)
Science Specialist (OSS) - Deremy (Second spaceflight, first being Aquila 4)

Lift-off: 19:47:43 GMT
Booster landing: 20:03:18 GMT

Booster mission: 15 minutes and 35 seconds

Gael Escape: 20:08:48 GMT
Escaping Gael's sphere of influence: 20:13:32 GMT

Entering Nero's sphere of influence: 20:23:48 GMT

Entering Julia's sphere of influence: 20:29:51 GMT
Julia Orbital Insertion: 20:38:27 GMT

Undocking from Reliance: 20:48:26 GMT

First Julia Landing: 20:54:26 GMT
First Julia Take-off: 21:08:36 GMT

Time on surface: 14 minutes and 10 seconds

Second Julia Landing: 21:14:29 GMT
Second Julia Take-off: 21:25:41 GMT

Time on surface: 11 minutes and 12 seconds

Total time on surface: 25 minutes and 22 seconds

Redocking with Reliance: 21:29:42 GMT

Surface mission duration: 41 minutes and 16 seconds

Final lander undocking: 21:32:34 GMT
Lander escape burn: 21:36:28 GMT
Lander crashes into Nero's atmosphere: 21:46:40 GMT

Julia Escape: 21:41:05 GMT
Exiting Julia's sphere of influence: 21:43:20 GMT

Total time in Julia's sphere of influence: 1 hour, 13 minutes and 29 seconds

Exiting Nero's sphere of influence: 21:47:11 GMT

Total time in Nero's sphere of influence: 1 hour, 23 minutes and 23 seconds

Entering Gael's sphere of influence: 21:55:02 GMT

Total time outside of Gael's sphere of influence: 1 hour, 41 minutes and 30 seconds

First Gael Re-entry: 21:57:50 GMT
Gael Orbital Insertion: 21:58:36 GMT

Second Gael Re-entry: 22:06:51 GMT

Rendezvous with Salyut 8: 22:18:28 GMT
Deorbit Burn: 22:28:59 GMT

Total time near Salyut 8: 10 minutes and 31 seconds

Third and final Re-entry: 22:37:42 GMT

Landing: 22:42:04 GMT

Mission duration: 2 hours, 54 minutes and 21 seconds