Armadillo Aerospace is an aerospace startup company based in Mesquite, Texas. Its initial goal is to build a manned suborbital spacecraft capable of winning the Ansari X-Prize, but it has stated long-term ambitions of orbital spaceflight.

Armadillo is led (and largely funded) by John Carmack, a developer of computer games including Doom and Quake. All of its employees (including Carmack) have other, full-time jobs and contribute their efforts to Armadillo on a voluntary basis. Like other Ansari X-Prize candidates, Armadillo runs on a relatively small budget, i.e., without support from major aerospace companies or agencies like NASA, ESA, or Boeing. Armadillo Aerospace has publicly declared itself fully self-funded.[1] As of July, 2004, Carmack estimates he has spent around US$1.5 million of his id Software fortune on the project, a tiny sum compared with the budgets of established manned spaceflight programs.[2]

Armadillo uses modern computer technology to simplify and reduce costs of rockets. For example, instead of stabilization fins which complicate the design and increase drag, it uses an aerodynamically unstable design, where the computer controls jet vanes based on feedback from fiber optic gyroscopes. Armadillo also has stated a preference for simplicity and reliability over performance, which is evident in its choice of hydrogen peroxide (50 % concentration in water) and methanol as a mixed monopropellant for its Ansari X-Prize class vehicle. Rocket engines for several other propellants, including 90 % hydrogen peroxide, peroxide and kerosene bipropellant and liquid oxygen and methanol bipropellant, have been tested. Armadillo is also notable for having an incremental testing strategy that involves firing the engines and flying the vehicle as much as possible, many times more often than other X-prize contenders.

On August 8, 2004, a test flight of Armadillo's prototype vehicle ran out of fuel, crashed, and the vehicle was destroyed. The costs of constructing a new vehicle have been approximated to be around US$40,000.

External links

• Armadillo Aerospace homepage
• Project update on vehicle loss
• Official Armadillo Aerospace Forum