The Anomaly Was Resolved Before Anyone Knew There Was An Anomaly
ORC-V2 “Reg” completed a standard LEO retrieval at 558 km. A minor attitude control anomaly was encountered on day 11 and resolved by the ground team with no impact to mission outcome or timeline. Re-entry was confirmed on 18 March 2026. Full chain-of-custody documentation was issued within 14 working days.
The ground team lead on this mission received Employee of the Quarter for Q1 2026. The citation notes “exceptional composure and technical competence under pressure.”
The anomaly was real. It was not minor. It was the kind of attitude control failure that, unaddressed, would have ended the mission and required an additional vehicle deployment at significant cost. T. Davies addressed it between 02:44 and 06:51 on day 11 without telling anyone it was happening.
We are aware that there is a case for saying this was the correct approach. The anomaly was within T. Davies’ operational authority to resolve. Alerting the ops room would have triggered a full mission review protocol that would have added days to the timeline. T. Davies assessed the situation, resolved it, and continued. The outcome was [REDACTED].
The client asked, at no point, about the attitude control system during the mission. The client called once on day 14 to ask if there was “anything to report.” A. Kowalski said no. A. Kowalski did not know about the anomaly at the time. This was [REDACTED].
T. Davies was asked, during the review, why he had not informed the ops room immediately. T. Davies said he had been “fairly confident it was going to be fine.” We asked him what he would have done if it had not been fine. T. Davies said he would have told us then. We have not found a flaw in this logic. We have been trying.
| Service tier | S-01 Standard Retrieval |
| Vehicle | ORC-V2 “Reg” |
| Altitude | LEO · 558 km |
| Mission duration | 27 days |
| Anomalies | 1 (attitude control, day 11) |
| Time from anomaly to resolution | 4 hours, 7 minutes |
| People notified during anomaly | 0 |
| People notified after anomaly | 0 (until day 50, in passing, at a different meeting) |
| Mission outcome | Success. Complete. Re-entry confirmed. |
| T. Davies: Employee of the Quarter | Yes. Q1 2026. We stand by this. |
| Communications protocol updated | Yes. Immediately after the review. It has a name. We are not sharing it. |
- The updated mission communications protocol requires immediate notification of any attitude control event rated Class 2 or above. T. Davies has read the updated protocol. T. Davies has signed the updated protocol. T. Davies has not commented on the updated protocol.
- A. Kowalski’s response of “no” to the client’s day 14 enquiry was accurate at the time and we are treating it as such. A. Kowalski has been informed of this decision. A. Kowalski said “thank you” and moved on. We are also moving on.
- Reg’s attitude control system was inspected on return. The root cause was identified. The system was recalibrated. Reg is currently on mission ORC-2026-121. Reg is fine. T. Davies is monitoring ORC-2026-121. We have asked T. Davies to keep us informed. T. Davies said he would.
- The Employee of the Quarter award for T. Davies has been retained. The citation has been quietly amended to add the phrase “within operational parameters as subsequently defined.” T. Davies has not read the amended citation. We are not drawing his attention to it.