At about 7:15 am MDT Armadillo Aerospace showed up with a repaired Pixel vehicle, ready to make another attempt later this morning for the Lunar Lander Challenge Level 1. John Carmack said that they made a number of fixes to Pixel overnight, including replacing the landing legs with the ones from Texel, replacing some burned […]
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One of the other events that took place during the day Friday was a press conference where the Rocket Racing League (RRL) unveiled its first X-Racer rocketplane and its name, Thunderhawk. The event got some star power with guest appearances by Buzz Aldrin and Bill Richardson, the governor of New Mexico: (Richardson is the second […] John Carmack is on live explaining what happened with the flight. They initially had problems this morning with icing on their LOX lines, apparently because they were not able to store the vehicles overnight in a heated hangar. He says the flight went well up until landing, but hasn’t explained what exactly went wrong during […] Armadillo completed the first of its two flights for Level One of the Lunar Lander Challenge at about 1:25 MDT. It appears to have been a success, but there are now reports that there was a fire of some kind after landing–whether on the vehicle or pad is unclear–and it seems unlikely they will make […] The 2.5-hour window for Armadillo Aerospace’s Lunar Lander Challenge Level 1 attempt started about 10 minutes ago when they crossed a white line on the tarmac at the airport. A few minutes later their vehicle, Pixel, was loaded onto a truck and headed for the competition site in the airport midfield. […] Armadillo’s Lunar Lander Challenge launch has been delayed by technical issues: apparently there is some wireless interference disrupting their link to their vehicle. They’re planning to go later this morning; they have a 2.5-hour launch window that opens at 11 am MDT. One team member said they believe they have a 70% chance of winning […] MSNBC reports that the FAA will make a decision by tomorrow morning on whether Armadillo Aerospace will be allowed to participate in the Lunar Lander Challenge after reviewing data from a test flight Thursday at the airport. The test flight (which, unfortunately, I missed seeing in person) went well, although Armadillo’s Quad vehicle tipped over […] The Rocket Racing League (RRL) won’t have anything flying at the X Prize Cup, but they are getting grounded in a good way in Las Cruces. The company reported that the Las Cruces City Council unanimously approved the sale of 69.34 hectares (171.35 acres) of land near the airport for the company’s headquarters and industrial […] It was looking a little bleak there for a while about whether anyone would be able to compete for the Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge: Flight International posted a story with the discouraging title “FAA could call halt to NASA lunar lander challenge”, and, more ominously, Leonard David reported that Armadillo Aerospace “ran into snags” […] New Scientist is on the scene at the ISPS in Las Cruces and reports that The da Vinci Project (or, more accurately, “The GoldenPalace.com Space Program – Powered by the da Vinci Project”) has unveiled designs for a new series of suborbital passenger vehicles. The XF1 is a single-person design that would initially be launched […] |
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