At the Wirefly X-Prize Cup
As I happened to be in Orlando, Florida on my honeymoon, my lovely wife gave me permission to fly out to New Mexico attend the Wirefly X-Prize Cup. I arrived around 9am to discover that the first attempt by Armadillo Aerospace to win the Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge was scrubbed due to a clogged fuel igniter. The second attempt was after lunch and everything went great for the first leg of the flight. Refueling appeared to be going fine when the announcers reported that there appeared to be another clog in a fuel line. This was reported to have been cleared, and the flight appeared to go fine. Due to a requirement of the prize the vehicle has to hover over the landing pad until 90 seconds of flight time is complete. During the last 7 seconds of this hover the vehicle fell. When the dust cleared the module was lying on its side. Space.com is reporting that the dust may have been the problem. We won't know until Carmack makes a report. Jason Silverman from Wired...