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John Carmack says Armadillo Aerospace is in 'hibernation' following setbacks
Armadillo Aerospace was once at the forefront of efforts to foster private spaceflight, but it has been quiet ever since its STIG-B rocket crashed in January. We're now learning why: founder John Carmack has revealed that the company is now in "hibernation." The transition from contract work to vehicle building just didn't pan out, he says. Having more full-time staff backfired, as workers were bogged down in planning and reviews; the team also repeated many of NASA's mistakes in material choices, limiting its production capacity. As Carmack isn't prepared to invest more of his personal funds to keep Armadillo going, the firm will likely remain on ice until there's a new investor who's ready to pay to keep up with Branson and Musk in the space race. [Image credit: Official GDC, Flickr]
Virgin Galactic, XCOR land suborbital contracts with NASA
Have $200,000 to spare for a ticket to space? NASA does, apparently, a few times over. Following the retirement of its Space Shuttle program, the US agency just announced two-year contracts with seven space flight companies, worth a combined $10 million. NASA will partner with Virgin Galactic, XCOR, and five other companies to bring engineers, scientists, and equipment to space, for a variety of experiments in low-gravity environments. The contract provides few financial implications for Virgin, which has already collected $55 million in deposits from future space tourists, but the company did acknowledge it as an "important milestone" in its efforts to grow beyond initial consumer offerings. Space Adventures, which serves as a low-cost carrier of sorts in the industry with its $102,000 flight, may be represented as well, through its partner Armadillo Aerospace -- so it's probably safe to assume that NASA won't be paying two large huge a pop to blast its personnel to space.
NASA successfully tests autonomous lunar lander navigation system, codename GENIE (video)
Robonaut2 may have fantastic biceps, but raw muscle won't put a man humanoid on the moon -- that takes rockets. Rockets like the one in this RR-1 prototype lander, recently outfitted with a Guidance Embedded Navigator Integration Environment (GENIE) system to let the craft safely descend to the lunar surface. On June 23rd, NASA and partner Armadillo Aerospace put the system to the test, hoping it could figure out the complex algorithms necessary to process volumes of data from the laser altimeter, GPS and inertial sensors, and quickly enough to steer the rocket engine accordingly... but the machine performed like a charm. See its first solo flight in an inspiring, flame-filled video after the break, and skip to 4:12 for the good stuff.
Space Adventures undercuts Virgin Galactic -- announces $100,000 space tourism flight
Space tourism is something we here at Engadget have always been pretty fond of in theory -- it is the final frontier, after all -- but the prohibitive (exorbitant, extravagant, ridiculous) $200,000 price tag on a Virgin Galactic flight pretty much ended any small hopes we ever harbored of getting on one. So, would a reduction of about 50 percent be enough to get us to sign up? That's the question that Virginia-based Space Adventures is asking. The company's just announced it's going to offer flights into suborbital space through an exclusive agreement with Armadillo Aerospace, which is currently developing the rockets for the journeys. A trip with Space Adventures is set to cost just $102,000. We still can't afford it, but we're certainly glad to see the prices fall from insane to outrageous. So, what about you? Are you in?
Lunar lander lifts off, then promptly crashes
As the sole contestant in the Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge, Armadillo Aerospace's predictably named Armadillo managed to complete two parts of a NASA challenge to win $350,000 in prize money. However, on attempting the top task -- fly 50 meters up, fly 50 meters sideways, and land -- the Armadillo tripped up, plummeting to the ground and losing the chance to win $1 million. It'll get another chance today, although at least the team won't be rushed by the non-existent competitors. Packing 1,800 pounds of thrust to the vessel's 1,500 pound weight, the Armadillo is guided by GPS and other sensors: one day we could be taking trips to the moon in the distant, distant successor to this little beast.[Via Crave]
