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The Kestrel Initial Demonstrator (KID) cargo capsule has survived the off-nominal PSLV-C62 flight. In a post on LinkedIn, Orbital Paradigm said, "Following nominal takeoff at 04:48 UTC, an anomaly occurred during the third stage boost of PSLV-C62. During third stage burn, the launch vehicle lost thrust and deviated from the nominal trajectory. Still, despite events, we confirmed today that KID survived and transmitted valuable data. Our team is analyzing and investigating the trajectory information. We'll provide a detailed update in the coming days. We received a lot of support from the space community: thank you all so much. More to come."
The Kestrel Initial Demonstrator was meant to test a scaled-down version of a cargo capsule designed to complete the space transportation chain. The International Space Station and China's Tiangong Space Station can host science experiments that are then returned to the ground. The capacity is limited, and there is tremendous global demand for returning experiments, which is what Orbital Paradigm aims to serve. Despite being a technology demonstrator mission, the KID cargo capsule was hosting payloads for space robotics company Alatyr, an academic payload for Leibniz University in Hannover, Germany, and a payload for an undisclosed customer.
The hardware was realised within a year by a team of nine engineers within a tight budget of $1 million. A scaled-up version, capable of hosting up to 120 kg of payloads is expected to be launched in 2026, called the 'Learn to Fly mission'. The KID capsule was to be the last payload released by the upper stage of the rocket, after a deboosting burn towards the end of the mission. The rocket never made it to orbit, and it is unclear of the KID capsule separated from the upper stage or remained attached during the duration of the flight. The capsule was not expected to survive the trip through the atmosphere, and Orbital Paradigm had no plans to recover the capsule. Because of space and weight constraints, no parachutes were packed into the KID.
