Armadillo versus the weather

I’m in the Dallas area this weekend to (hopefully) see Armadillo Aerospace compete in the Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge at the Level 2 category. The “hopefully” is less associated with any technical issues–they’ve flown their “Super Mod” vehicle a number of times on the pads they’ve built at the Caddo Mills Municipal Airport northeast of Dallas–than the weather. The forecast this weekend calls for rain, rain, and more rain, with some heavy storms mixed in. It was raining when I arrived in Dallas late last night and is raining again, lightly, this morning. However, the weather radar hints that there may be enough holes in the rain later today to make a flight attempt–maybe.

For some background, MSNBC and New Scientist published articles on the flight attempts by Armadillo (and Masten Space and Unreasonable Rocket, two other NGLLC teams planning Level 1 and Level 2 flight attempts). The setup at the airport is likely to be barebones, but I will be posting updates via Twitter as time and technology permit, as will @NGLLC09, the official Twitter account of the competition.