Armadillo does Level 1 LLC rehearsal [Update]

The Armadillo team carried out a complete, untethered Level 1 Lunar Lander Challenge flight profile on Saturday at the Oklahoma Spaceport in Burns Flat. The landings in both directions were within a meter of the pad centers according to a posting by John Carmack on the aRocket forum. I expect his monthly update will appear soon with details. In the meantime, here is a link to a video of the event. (Boy, with experience the AA rocket pit crew sure has gotten faster. ;-) )

[Update June.4.07: As noted in the comments, John has now posted the monthly update with info on this flight and other activities and plans: 192 second hover, ful LLC1 flights, Other work - Armadillo Aerospace - June.4.07.]

Landing on a long pillar of flame is really cool. As I've mentioned before, I really think someone could make a business by buying one of these vehicles from AA and flying it at air shows and state fairs. As experience grows, for both the operator and the FAA, you could start to do night flights and adding showbiz enhancements such as laser lightshow battles and fireworks.

Posted 06/03/07 | 20:53:58 by TopSpacer | Filed under: Transport Companies

Comments

John and the rest of the AA team,

Congratulations on a fantastic job! You have saved 2007!

Posted by Tony Rusi at 06/03/07 22:21:59

The gauntlet has been thrown down.

Clark, as long as I have your attention, a question - what is the best way to alert you to a story, or blog posting? I plan to start doing more, but I don't want to load the comments section, if there is a better way for leting you know

Posted by Ferris Valyn at 06/03/07 23:30:56

Congratulations to Armadillo team!

John has also posted their monthly update:
http://www.armadilloaerospa...

The 180 sec back-to-back flights (tethered and untethered) should happen in near future also. Hopefully everything goes smoothly!

Posted by K.L. at 06/04/07 04:23:07

Hi Ferris,
If your link is related to the particular posting, it is fine to put it in a comment. With spam now mostly eliminated, I've turned back on the comment alert system, which emails me a copy of each comment. So I will know fairly soon what you have submitted.

Otherwise, it is best to email me directly at clarklindsey at hobbyspace.com
Thanks,
- C.

Posted by TopSpacer at 06/04/07 06:42:20

It's great to see the Armadillo guys come such a long way. I won't be able to make the X-cup this year (as far as I know, right now), but yeah, I'd love to see a Pixel flying at the local airshow. A rocket landing and taking off on the commercials would definately draw more people.

Posted by bad_astra at 06/04/07 07:48:34

bad_astra - imagine, taking it one step further, the vertical drag racing. Carmack said that it may go forward at some point - imagine seeing 5 or 6 roar and take off at the same time.

Posted by Ferris Valyn at 06/04/07 10:22:29

I love Armadillo. It may not be the closest to achieving its ambitions, but IMHO its modular concept has the greatest chance of any company of really opening up the solar system. Every success of theirs gets us one step closer. I hope Carmack wins the lottery or gets the attention of a billionaire.

Posted by Teeth Malloy at 06/04/07 13:45:55

"Landing on a long pillar of flame is really cool. As I've mentioned before, I really think someone could make a business by buying one of these vehicles from AA and flying it at air shows and state fairs. As experience grows, for both the operator and the FAA, you could start to do night flights and adding showbiz enhancements such as laser lightshow battles and fireworks."

Why not? We see such things with H2O2 rocket 'belts.' I would think there could be some interest from Hollywood special effects people too, but maybe CGI is getting too easy for them to bother...

Posted by Frank Glover at 06/04/07 13:46:40

Teeth - Actually, I question how much money Carmack really wants - if you want cost effective rockets, yes, you need to be willing to pay for it, but that doesn't mean you need something in the hundreds of millions. The more I look at this from a business perspective, you need to make development practical in the realm of hundreds of thosands, to limited millions for development costs, and enter the phase of long term profitablity. I see that in Armadillo (as well as in some other companies), and so when an investor comes, (and they will come), they won't need that kind of investment. And more importantly, they'll be able to be somewhat selective in their choice of investors.

Posted by Ferris Valyn at 06/04/07 19:43:25

They won't be saddled with debt like Rocketplane when they finally get the chance to prove the modular combos as an orbital lv system. Armadillo Rocks!

Posted by bad_astra at 06/05/07 09:00:50

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