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Armadillo Aerospace Takes Level 1 Lunar Lander Prize
jedibfa writes "Las Cruces International Airport came alive with applause and cheers yesterday afternoon as John Carmack's Armadillo Aerospace took the first place prize for the Level 1 challenge of the Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge, winning $350,000 and bragging rights. Adding to the excitement of the day, shortly before completing their second qualifying flight, Armadillo Aerospace and The Rocket Racing League announced a joint program to develop a sub-orbital tourist vehicle that will fly out of the New Mexico-based Spaceport America and cost less than $100,000 per ticket. On Sunday, the team will have three opportunities to go for the Level 2 challenge that more closely approximates the required performance for a real lunar landing. Good luck, Armadillo Aerospace, both on Sunday and in your new endeavor!"
We discussed preparations for the challenge last week. Several other readers have contributed additional coverage, including the Space Fellowship's live blog of the event, the website for Truezer0, another team participating in the challenge, and a VentureBeat article discussing the economic downturn in space exploration, and how the X-prize competitions figure in. Today's Level 2 challenge will be covered live via webcast.
Just been watching the live feed of the level 2 challenge, and the first launch has been aborted. The engines fired briefly, but then Pixel tipped over onto its side. Luckily the damage doesn't appear to be too serious, there's some speculation they might make a second attempt at launch. Commiserations Armadillo!
the videos are good but sometimes take a while to show up on their website. Found some on youtube though
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSZBzIGg-ME
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UrgoQRnej4
This winning flight is welcome good news at a time when many have concerns about a down-turn in commercial space and Obama, the likely next President of the United States has recently said of such prizes, "When John F. Kennedy decided that we were going to put a man on the moon, he didn't put a bounty out for some rocket scientist to win â" he put the full resources of the United States government behind the project..."
Seastead this.