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Armadillo Flies... Briefly

Posted by michael on from the lawn-dart dept.

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."

1 of 305 comments (clear)

  1. Keep trying... by Goonie · · Score: 5, Interesting
    On the off chance the Armadillo guys read this post, I'd just like to congratulate them for making it as far as they have, and hope that they aren't too discouraged by the less-than-perfect result of this test. If you expect things to work perfectly every time, you'll never try anything new.

    Good luck, and count me in for a ticket when the bugs are out of the system!

    --

    Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a rigged demo
    --Andy Finkel (J. Klass?)