spacetoday.net: Armadillo fails to win Lunar Lander Challenge

Posted: Tue, Oct 30, 2007, 7:59 AM ET (1159 GMT)
Armadillo Aerospace Mod vehicle in flight at 2007 XP Cup (J. Foust)

Armadillo Aerospace failed to win either level of the Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge at the X Prize Cup in New Mexico on Sunday after their vehicle experienced engine problems. Armadillo's Mod vehicle successfully flew the first leg of the level 1 challenge on Sunday morning, but suffered an engine hard start on the beginning of its return trip and did a powered abort back to the pad. On Sunday afternoon the vehicle suffered a more powerful hard start at the beginning of its first leg that destroyed the engine and caused a fire that burned for about a minute, although not significantly damaging the rest of the vehicle. The full $2 million prize purse, provided by NASA's Centennial Challenges program, will be available for next year's competition.