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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."
Huh? Their "fuel" is hydrogen peroxide, which converts to steam when it hits the catalyzing screens just prior to the engine nozzles. The screens should be plenty hot when they hit higher altitudes, and a pressure sphere will increase in performance (up to a point) as the the outer atmospheric pressure decreases. I really don't see how a turbopump comes into the equation, as you don't have separate fuel/oxidizers to combine and ignite.
We built a checklist for our flight operations, which was a very good idea. Going through it before setting off caught several things we almost forgot.
Except the one thing that you did forget.
Haing a checklist is one thing. Having a complete checklist is evidently something else.