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Armadillo Flies... Briefly

david.given writes "Armadillo Aerospace did their first untethered test flight last week, at the Oklahoma Spaceport, using their new tube-shaped rocket. Predicted height was fifteen hundred feet; unfortunately a computer failure caused the vehicle to tip over and dive into the ground from a hundred feet up, causing severe damage (i.e., it requires a rebuild, not a repair). See the report and the slightly depressing video footage."

32 of 305 comments (clear)

  1. Really has to be asked by dirvish · · Score: 5, Funny

    unfortunately a computer failure caused the vehicle to tip over

    What operating system were they running?

    1. Re:Really has to be asked by daeley · · Score: 5, Funny

      Rocket Scientist: 'Operating System? Crap! I *knew* we forgot something!'

      --
      I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate.
    2. Re:Really has to be asked by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Funny

      I bet it was the OS with the business-idea:

      1: Do free stuff.
      2: ?
      3: Profit!

    3. Re:Really has to be asked by iabervon · · Score: 5, Funny

      "Hello, Tech Support? My rocket crashed." "Is the computer plugged in?"

    4. Re:Really has to be asked by Danse · · Score: 2, Funny

      unless..... he used his secret anti-linux storm troopers to sabotage it in the middle of the night.

      Well, duh! What other explanation could there be??

      --
      It's not enough to bash in heads, you've got to bash in minds. - Captain Hammer
    5. Re:Really has to be asked by vsprintf · · Score: 5, Funny

      Slip-on battery connectors are a bad idea.

      Slip-on connectors anywhere in an area subjected to lots of vibration or g-forces is a bad idea.

      I remember my second attempt at bracket racing, where a quarter of the way down the dragstrip, there was a huge bang from the engine, and it just died. I coasted to the exit road while listening to the announcer on the PA say, "Ha, looks like the *snicker* Ford's got real problems."

      We towed the Mustang home, and the next day I had unbolted the hood and was getting ready to pull the manifold and heads when an onlooking buddy says, "Did you yank this ignition wire?"

      A slip-on connector to the coil had shaken off. Dumbest design I've ever seen, and the end result was pretty embarassing in more than one way.

    6. Re:Really has to be asked by ChaoticLimbs · · Score: 5, Funny

      What you can do is melt an alloy of tin, lead and bismuth on the battery contacts after wrapping the wires around the terminals. This method is used by NASA. very hush-hush stuff. This special alloy of metals actually flows into the connection when in molten state, and not only does it improve the connection's electrical resistance, but it also improves the mechanical strength significantly once it hardens. Try that. PS- it lifted off and I bet that if the computer had been capable of actually controlling it, it would have flown (up) more.

    7. Re:Really has to be asked by ChaoticLimbs · · Score: 2, Funny

      No, what I am describing is more hush hush proprietary government conspiracy stuff to eliminate any and all resistance to electron flow. They don't want people to know about it. Evidently, it's working. Sometimes those government bastards even put silver into the alloy to make it work even better. Beurocrats don't tolerate resistance, you know. We're living in an imperialist system and all. All kinds of scientists trying to control atomic particles and tell them where they can go and can't go. I'm not sure how it all works, but I'm agin' it.

  2. Their server crashed too by Dave_B93 · · Score: 4, Funny

    computer malfunctions seem pretty common for these guys ;-)

    1. Re:Their server crashed too by vsprintf · · Score: 4, Funny

      Let's see you get your ass off the ground with 500,000 slashbots hanging from it. :)

  3. Unofficial reports by Telastyn · · Score: 4, Funny

    unofficial reports also state that their webserver was being sent on the rocket as a guinea pig.

  4. id Software New Feature by Amadaeus · · Score: 4, Funny

    Think of it: id Software can be the first game company to be qualified advertise games with "Real Life Space Physics" if John Carmack comes back alive from one of his space flights.

    Coming Soon: Doom VIII: Space Warfare

    --
    ------
    Amadaeus
    The last bastion of Mathie-ism
  5. that gives me an idea... by sprytel · · Score: 4, Funny

    for some inexplicable reason, i'm suddenly in the mood for a game of lawn darts...

  6. Memo to self by The+Evil+Couch · · Score: 4, Funny

    don't try to compile my kernel while flying a rocket.

  7. A _computer_ failure? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Does anyone see the humor in a bunch of rocketgeeks, led by a famous computer programmer having their maiden untethered test flight ruined by a computer failure?

    Not a physics or engineering problem, but a computer problem.

    Heh. Goes to show that computing really is rocket science. In fact, it's harder!

  8. Ironic... by Spytap · · Score: 5, Funny

    This is what happens when you name your vehicle after one of the dumbest animals alive...it acts like one.

  9. Meanwhile, in Redmond by Epsillon · · Score: 5, Funny

    Microsoft issues a statement calling the launch a "complete success" and promises 150 feet by "service pack 2"

    --
    Resistance is futile. Reactance buggers it up.
  10. I'm sure Carmack learned a very useful lesson... by Bamafan77 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Quake physics is nothing like real life physics. ;)

  11. Re:Wonderfull by unicron · · Score: 5, Funny

    The sooner they build the rocket, the sooner they find an advanced civilization that can gives us the computer needed to run Doom3 above 800x600. Just have patience.

    --
    Finally, math books without any of that base 6 crap in them.
  12. Web Server Matches Rocket by brandido · · Score: 3, Funny

    Predicted load of fifteen hundred users; unfortunately a web server failure caused the web site to tip over and dive into the ether from a hundred user load, causing severe damage (i.e., it requires a new server, not a new OS)

    --
    First Falcon-1 to orbit, then Falcon-9. Then I can die a happy man.
  13. Don't blame them. by Eros · · Score: 4, Funny

    If my computer wasn't working, I couldn't get it up either. ;)

  14. Brought to you... by iiioxx · · Score: 4, Funny

    ... by the fine folks at Acme, Inc.

    There wasn't a coyote strapped to that rocket by any chance, was there?

  15. They should have listened harder to the lecture by xenocide2 · · Score: 4, Funny

    The lecture. "The missile knows where it is, because it knows where it isn't"

    --
    I Browse at +4 Flamebait

    Open Source Sysadmin

  16. NEW tube shaped rocket? by spun · · Score: 5, Funny

    As opposed to the outdated cubical rockets?

    --
    - None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
    1. Re:NEW tube shaped rocket? by sxltrex · · Score: 2, Funny

      What, you've never seen a Borg ship?

  17. Re:Mirror of the movies by WankersRevenge · · Score: 5, Funny

    That launch reminds of my first time I tried to score with a woman. Ahh. Memories.

  18. I think I read a comic with the same problem... by fireboy1919 · · Score: 4, Funny

    This one. Yeah, its not Penny Arcade, Dilbert or User Friendly. Shocking, huh?

    --
    Mod me down and I will become more powerful than you can possibly imagine!
  19. Of course it failed! by tswinzig · · Score: 5, Funny

    "NOVEMBER SKY" doesn't translate into anything nearly as cool as "ROCKET BOYS."

    I mean, according to anagram science, Carmack should have been asking his girl to "SERVE MY KNOB."

    --

    "And like that ... he's gone."
  20. Ouch -100 Health by YrWrstNtmr · · Score: 3, Funny

    This is what happens when you miss the timing on a rocketjump.

  21. Re:Mirror of the movies by jimmyCarter · · Score: 3, Funny

    If Darwin's theory of evolution was correct, cats would be able to operate a can opener by now.

    Give them some time..

    --

    -- jimmycarter
  22. Site has Officially been /.'d!!! by C.+Alan · · Score: 2, Funny

    I love their current default overflow page Too many users... blah blah blah Probable cause: http://www.slashdot.org Try again in a few seconds... -xian@idsoftware.com

  23. Even more telling then. by charon_on_acheron · · Score: 3, Funny

    "Its defense mechanism is to jump straight up when frightened, and adults can jump three to four feet into the air. "...

    So the rocket is named after an animal that can launch itself in the air, up to a few times its own height, then crashes back to earth, possibly causing massive destruction and carnage.

    Guess they picked the right animal after all.