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Armadillo Aero One Step Closer To Space

Posted by timothy on from the junior-birdman dept.

RobertB-DC writes "The folks at Armadillo Aerospace have taken another step toward the X-Prize, dropping their re-entry vehicle from 2000 feet with no major problems noted. As usual, the Armadillo crew documented the event with text, pictures and video, and the story is also covered by Space.com (though without as many cool technical details). It's a bumpy ride, though -- instruments recorded some 10 G's on touchdown."

2 of 213 comments (clear)

  1. Re:You're absolutely right. by RedWizzard · · Score: 4, Insightful
    but no one is going to catch up with Rutan's design
    No one outside of Rutan's organisation really knows how far advanced Rutan's project is, so it's a bit hard to say if he's in the lead or not. Certainly when it was first announced and the website went up there were several pictures that had been doctored to make it look like things where more advanced than they actually were. Rutan lost some credibility in my eyes with that.
  2. as the old saying goes... by SuperBanana · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It could be a very smooth, fast drop.

    As the old saying goes about leaping off a bridge, it's not the trip down that sucks- it's the ending.

    The joke among some pilots, after a hard landing, is the term "unintentional ground contact."

    --
    Please help metamoderate.