Carmack's Armadillo Aerospace Rocket Crashes and Burns

mcgrew (sm62704) writes "New Scientist is reporting that John Carmack's 'Armadillo Aerospace' has suffered a large setback in the Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge after one of its two main rockets crashed and burned. 'During the test, Texel lifted off and hovered without incident, then descended again and touched the ground. But it then rose again unexpectedly and began accelerating upward. "Crap, it's going to fly into the crane, I need to kill it," Carmack recalls thinking. He hit the manual shutdown switch, turning off the vehicle's engine in mid-flight. Texel was about 6 metres above the ground and fell like a stone. One of its fuel tanks broke open when it hit the ground, spewing fuel that ignited and engulfed the vehicle in flames. "It made a fireball that would make any Hollywood movie proud," Carmack says.' No one was hurt in the crash, but the vehicle was destroyed."

Comments

I wish I had his money

[Anonymous Coward]

Cause then I could pursue all kinds of things I have no business pursuing.

Get back to your workstation, nerdboy, and write me up some cool games.

this sounds familiar

[kevin.fowler]

Are they sure it was a Rocket?

Are they sure it wasn't Daikatana 2?

Re:that's unfortunate but

[UbuntuDupe]

Translation: Let's see if we can stall on releasing the video long enough for the bad publicity to blow over and everyone forgets about it.

Try water as fuel

[MickeO]

Hey Carmack. You should try using water as fuel, and split it into HH and O gas. For more info, watch http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-333399219 4168790800 Btw, one of his patent expired a few months ago Anyway, good luck with your next rocket launch.