Just arrived at the media center for day two of the Wirefly X Prize Cup. It’s still quiet here this morning, with only the faintest hints of light off to the east–sunrise is still about an hour away (fortunately, there’s now a light in the media tent so I can see what I’m doing.) No word yet on Armadillo’s status for the Lunar Lander Challenge; they hoped to fly as early as possible this morning, perhaps as soon as 8:15 am MDT or so. I talked to someone from Masten Space Systems as soon as I got here and they’re planning to do another engine firing early this morning, as one of the first events of the day.
|
||||||
|
Here’s a brief video from the second flight of Dan Schlund, the “Rocketman”, during the X Prize Cup Friday afternoon. Unfortunately from the standpoint of those in the media gathered on a riser to the left of the media tent, Schlund moved to the right, and kept to a low altitude, which meant he disappeared quickly behind the tent. (Also, because of a technical glitch, there’s no audio.) Nonetheless, there’s still something about seeing someone wearing a jetpack take off… I’ve put together on Flickr a collection of photos I took during the X Prize Cup on Friday. Some of these are similar to or the same as what I posted throughout the day, while others offer other glimpses of activities throughout the day. The X Prize Cup is winding down for the day, with no major other events planned for the afternoon. Carmack confirmed in a press gaggle a little while ago that they plan to fix Pixel tonight and fly it tomorrow for the Level 1 Lunar Lander Challenge; if they have to use Texel instead they would have to jump to Level 2 of the challenge according to the rules, which would be something of a leap. Exactly what and when they will fly tomorrow remains TBD. I’ll be posting tonight some more about various other events that took place during the day today, along with some additional photos and videos. 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 the landing. John Herrington, one of the Challenge judges, just explained that one of the legs on the vehicle was damaged on landing, causing a small fire. They will not fly the vehicle again today, but they may repair and fly it tomorrow, or else fly their other vehicle, Texel, tomorrow. Update 2:15 pm MDT: Carmack was interviewed and provided more details about what happened. Apparently they landed a little faster than they planned and broke a shock absorber on one of the vehicle’s legs. That broke the leg, which in turned caused the engine thrust to burn some electronics in the vehicle. They are still planning to repair Pixel tonight and making some tweaks to the flight control software to avoid a hard landing like that in the future; they may cannibalize some parts, like a landing leg, from their other vehicle, Texel. 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 a second flight attempt today.  A few updates here at the X Prize Cup just after 1 pm MDT Friday:
It looks like there’s setting up for another Rocket Belt demo now. Earlier in the morning they did a demo of the “Rocket Belt”: a rocket backpack that allows a man to fly–for 30 seconds. They the demo right in front of the media center:  Fairly entertaining, especially for the kids. Shortly before Armadillo carted out their vehicle for their Lunar Lander Challenge attempt, Tripoli carried out another high-powered amateur launch:  This was one more powerful than the one earlier this morning, and its parachutes worked as well. 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.  |
||||||
| Copyright © 2025 NewSpace Journal - All Rights Reserved | ||||||
Recent Comments