Tue, Dec 02, 2008
Armadillo Aerospace Won Level One Competition In October
NASA will recognize Armadillo Aerospace, the winner of the 2008
Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge, during a ceremony at 10 am
on December 5 at NASA Headquarters in Washington, DC. The winning
vehicle successfully demonstrated some of the technologies needed
for a lunar lander capable of ferrying payloads or humans back and
forth between lunar orbit and the moon's surface.
During the ceremony, NASA Administrator Mike Griffin will speak
about NASA's commitment to commercial space development. Doug
Comstock, director of NASA's Innovative Partnerships Program, will
present a ceremonial check for $350,000 to the Armadillo Aerospace
team leader, John Carmack.
Also attending the event are George Nield, associate
administrator for Commercial Space Transportation at the Federal
Aviation Administration, and Peter Diamandis, chairman of the X
PRIZE Foundation, which managed the Lunar Lander Challenge for
NASA.
As ANN reported, Armadillo Aerospace won first
prize in the level one competition of the challenge held at the Las
Cruces International Airport in New Mexico last October. The team
constructed a rocket-powered vehicle that lifted off vertically to
a height of 50 meters, flew horizontally to a landing pad 100
meters away, landed safely after at least 90 seconds of flight time
and repeated the flight.
NASA's Centennial Challenges is a prize program to promote
technical innovation through competitions. The Lunar Lander
Challenge is one of seven current competitions designed to tap the
nation's ingenuity in support of NASA's goals and missions.
NASA's Innovative Partnerships Program Office in Washington
manages the Centennial Challenges.
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