Armadillo's fourth and final shot at winning the $350,000 portion of the $2 million Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge ended today in flames. After a loud explosion, a pool of fire spread approximately 30 feet away from the rocket, according to one photographer watching through a telephoto lens. Firetrucks were summoned, but the fire was out before their arrival.
Haze and dust kept spectators from seeing much of the fiery action. But the dwindling crowd gave Armadillo and its team leader, software icon John Carmack, a better-than-tepid round of applause. "Today is officially a bad day," Carmack told an X Prize representative. It looks like the $2 million purse, a portion of which insiders predicted Carmack would be taking home, will carry over until the 2008 X Prize Cup, which may allow more teams to compete.
In the meantime, expect increased scrutiny of the indie spaceflight industry, which has benefited from lots of post-SpaceShipOne hype. Can DIY engineers make their own, safe, commercially viable rockets? Will brave-hearted innovators change the nature of space exploration? Should NASA, Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin and Boeing be watching their backs?
Bretton Alexander, the X Prize Foundation's Executive Director, told the press that, despite the failed launches, he considered the event a smash hit. The military estimated three-day attendance, based on military photos, at 80,000 -- up from 15,000 in 2006 -- including 6,000 students. "Many of the attendees came for the airshow, but they were exposed to the space stuff," Alexander said.
(photo credit: Chris Jonas)
