Yay! It was third time lucky! Shame that the TrueZero Team crashed and burned though. What's GOO balthering about? This: http://www.space.com/news/081024-lunarlanderchallenge-teams.html http://space.xprize.org/lunar-lander-challenge And the fact that Armadillo Aerospace has successfully demonstrated lifting off one pad, hovering and then translating to another pad before setting down again, for a total duration of 90 seconds. http://www.hobbyspace.com/nucleus/index.php?itemid=9092 http://www.hobbyspace.com/nucleus/index.php?itemid=9097 http://www.hobbyspace.com/nucleus/index.php?itemid=9098 http://www.hobbyspace.com/nucleus/index.php?itemid=9101 http://www.hobbyspace.com/nucleus/index.php?itemid=9103 http://www.hobbyspace.com/nucleus/index.php?itemid=9105 http://www.hobbyspace.com/nucleus/index.php?itemid=9113 http://www.hobbyspace.com/nucleus/index.php?itemid=9118 http://www.hobbyspace.com/nucleus/index.php?itemid=9120 http://www.hobbyspace.com/nucleus/index.php?itemid=9122 http://www.hobbyspace.com/nucleus/index.php?itemid=9124 They're up for Level 2 today - it's trickier, as it requires a minimum 3 minute burn time, and IIRC, the pads for this one are built to replicate a lunar surface. There's a webcast of the event here http://space.xprize.org/webcast. Nothing happening for another 5 or so hours though. GO ARMADILLO!
I'm so glad the FAA issues didn't cost them the attempt. (Only 1.5 hour windows for flying were available because of a nearby airport and for administrative reasons Armadillo's didn't match up very well with their official LLC window. They were most of the way through their attempt when they had to stop.)
