Armadillo alums starting new space company

A new company involving at least some former Armadillo Aerospace employees will unveil its plans on Wednesday. Exos Aerospace is holding a “ribbon cutting media event” Wednesday morning at the Caddo Mills (Texas) Municipal Airport, northeast of Dallas. That’s the airport where Armadillo Aerospace had operated for several years, developing vehicles and performing low-level flight […]

Could a Facebook deal revive Armadillo Aerospace? (updated)

John Carmack speaking at the QuakeCon conference in Dallas on August 1, 2013, in a screenshot from the webcast of his speech.

Last August, John Carmack announced that his small space venture, Armadillo Aerospace, was in “hibernation mode” because of a lack of funding. Carmack, discussing the status of Armadillo during a question-and-answer session […]

Year in PReview: is 2014 finally the year suborbital space tourism lifts off?

SpaceShipTwo during its first powered test flight on April 29, 2013. (credit: Virgin Galactic/MarsScientific.com)

One decade ago, hopes were high for suborbital space tourism. Scaled Composites had performed the first powered test flight of SpaceShipOne in December of 2003, and other than a minor landing mishap, the company seemed to be on track for […]

Carmack: Armadillo Aerospace in “hibernation mode”

John Carmack speaking at the QuakeCon conference in Dallas on August 1. Screenshot from the webcast of his speech.

Armadillo Aerospace, the suborbital vehicle company founded and funded by video game designer John Carmack, has kept a low profile in recent months. The company did not participate in the recent Next-Generation Suborbital Researchers Conference […]

Armadillo receives a launch license for STIG-B

Neil Milburn (left) of Armadillo Aerospace speaks at the NewSpace 2012 Conference on Thursday after receiving a launch license from George Nield (right), associate administrator for commercial space transportation at the FAA. (credit: J. Foust)

Armadillo Aerospace is one step closer to flying a rocket into space after receiving a launch license from the […]

Armadillo and XCOR updates from Houston

Thursday night SpaceUp Houston hosted a Commercial Spaceflight Panel featuring representatives of a number of orbital and suborbital spaceflight companies. The four companies working on orbital systems—ATK, Boeing, Sierra Nevada, and SpaceX—largely provided reviews of their recent work under funded or unfunded Commercial Crew Development agreements with NASA that have generally been reported elsewhere. The […]

Eight years later, is the suborbital industry finally ready for liftoff?

Mike Melville raises his arms after exiting SpaceShipOne following his suborbital flight on June 21, 2004. To the left, in the yellow shirt, is Burt Rutan; in the blue shirt and cap is Paul Allen. (credit: J. Foust)

On June 21, 2004, Scaled Composites made history in the skies above the just-renamed Mojave Air […]

Suborbital vehicle development updates from Space Access ’12

On Friday three of the companies actively developing commercial suborbital vehicles—Armadillo Aerospace, Masten Space Systems, and XCOR Aerospace—gave presentations about their companies’ vehicle development work at the Space Access ’12 conference in Phoenix. Since it’s only been a month and a half since these companies, plus Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic (who are not presenting […]

Suborbital company announcements and other developments at NSRC

A big focus on Monday’s sessions of the 2012 Next-Generation Suborbital Researchers Conference in Palo Alto, California, was on the progress that five companies—Armadillo Aerospace, Blue Origin, Masten Space Systems, Virgin Galactic, and XCOR Aerospace—are making on the vehicles that can carry the research payloads, and perhaps even the researchers themselves, in the near future. […]

Armadillo Aerospace flies again from Spaceport America, but not without problems

In early December, Armadillo Aerospace successfully launched its STIG-A suborbital rocket from Spaceport America, flying to an altitude of nearly 42 kilometers before successfully returning to Earth by parachute. Shortly after that December 4 flight they released a video of the flight, shown below:

On Saturday they were back at the Spaceport for another […]