Armadillo Aerospace "Super Mod" tether test, 2010-09-11 (2011-06-22)

Includes induced perturbations to test recovery from aerodynamic impulses, and the telescopic legs extending at the end. We were ready to free-flight after this test, but a two-hour FAA hold would have put us too late in the day. Will probably try for the free flight later today.

Armadillo Aerospace 2010 Space Access Society video (2011-06-22)

Annual progress video covering Armadillo Aerospace activities from roughly April '09 to April '10. First shown at this year's Space Access Society conference, this video has been available on our web site but this is the first time it's been posted in HD, and with closed captions. We have fans who are hearing impaired, so this is for you too!

Armadillo Aerospace cylindrical tank burst test (2011-06-21)

Testing an aluminum 15-inch diameter tank to its bursting point, shot at 300fps. This one gives way at 460 PSI. The point of a test like this is to see if the test tank would meet our needs in terms of how much it weighs vs. how much pressure it can hold, and what margins we'd have to stay within to safely use it on an actual rocket.

Armadillo Aerospace liquid fuel rocket engine test firing (2011-08-19)

A test firing of Armadillo Aerospace engine #79, a liquid fueled film cooled rocket engine running on liquid oxygen and ethanol. Thrust is near 5000lb, for scale the nozzle exit is 7" in diameter.

Armadillo Aerospace Mod rocket full throttle hold down test (2011-06-22)

A full throttle hold down test of the Armadillo Aerospace Mod rocket, nicknamed "Dalek", on 2011.05.26. This is approximately the burn time that the vehicle will have in free flight. This represents around 180000 lb*s of total impulse, near the upper end of what the FAA defines as a Class 3 Amateur Rocket. In the letter scale used in small rockets, it would be a 'T'. The engine runs on liquid oxygen and denatured ethanol. This rocket will be flying payloads for the Nasa Commercial Reusable Suborbital Research program, aka CRuSR.

Armadillo Aerospace Mod rocket ship flies on 2010.09.17 (2011-05-31)

Friday's successful launch of the Armadillo Aerospace 'Mod' rocket flying just over 2000 feet, from a launch stand to the center of the pad. These relatively low flights are for testing and verification of the flight controls under increased acceleration and higher wind speeds. This vehicle, or one like it, will be flying Commercial Reusable Suborbital Research (CRuSR) payloads for Nasa in the near future. Watch it twice so you can see the landing gear extend!

Armadillo Aerospace Super Mod rocket free flight 2010-09-16 (2011-06-16)

Three-pane view: tripod tracking cam, on-board cam, and cutting between a pad-view cam and an up-facing cam.

Armadillo Aerospace Super Mod rocket free flight 2010-09-16 (2011-06-22)

This is the view from the west side of the pad looking east. It's taken from an HD camcorder turned on its side to get a taller view of the take off and landing. The landing portion shows a nice view of the legs deploying. Best viewed in HD on a big monitor. In fact, if you choose "original" from the resolution pull-down, and you're lucky to have a 30-in. monitor, you're seeing this video in 1600 pixel vertical resolution!

Armadillo Aerospace Super Mod rocket free flight 2010-09-16 (2011-06-22)

First free flight of the Super Mod configuration with fairing and deployable legs. Apogee was 2247ft. This is the tripod shot that tracks it through the whole flight.

Armadillo sounding rocket nose cone drogue test (2011-06-22)

Blowing the composite nose off the Tube Rocket known as Stig. This shows the flight configuration, a classic dual deployment of drogue parachute and main. Here only the nose removal and drogue ejection are shown. The tube rocket is a fully reusable suborbital sounding rocket for high altitude science experiments. Initial flights will be to 100000ft, with subsequent flights to 120km.

Armadillo Tube Rocket "Stig" first hover test (2011-06-22)

The Armadillo Aerospace rocket named Stig performs its first hover test. It's a 22.5 inch diameter LOX/alcohol rocket. It is a fully reusable sounding rocket, for flying scientific payloads and getting Armadillo experience with high speed and high altitude flight. 

Armadillo's tube rocket first firing wide angle (2011-06-21)

Armadillo Aerospace's Tube Rocket undergoes its first test firing, and the concrete pad is just bursting with excitement. This is a longer burn at lower final pressure than the vehicle will see in a flight to altitude, but it was a good test of the systems, as well as a good heating test of the bottom of the rocket. The tube rocket, named Stig, is a LOX/alcohol reusable sounding rocket. It will test our high altitude systems and operations, and to carry payloads to the edge of space.

Lame tank burst, slow motion and 3D (2011-06-22)

This is what a normal tank burst looks like with a hydrostatic burst, rather than a pneumatic burst. In other words the tank is completely filled with an incompressible fluid, aka water, and when the tank fails there isn't very much stored energy. The tank itself is a test of a different fabrication process for COTS tubing.

Mod 2000 foot free flight (four square) (2011-06-22)

The second engine-out flight, from June 26th, 2010. This time the drogue is attached at four individual points for more stability. This cut also shows the vane controlling roll.

Mod 2000 foot free flight/engine restart, up-facing view (2011-06-21)

This is the view looking up from next to the pad, which gives a good perspective on the correction the Mod had to do after relight to get back to its launch point. Best viewed in HD since the rocket gets pretty small in the frame (720p was the native resolution of the camera so that's as high as this one goes). 

Mod Rocket Spaceport America free flight and destruction (2011-06-21)

The first and only free flight of the Armadillo Aerospace SuperMod rocket, nicknamed "Dalek". It was exterminated. Instability caused by unexpected gas in the fuel inlet led to the engine shearing its supports and creating a significant yaw force on the rocket, leading to the fin section being destroyed by aerodynamic loads.

Stig blows its nose (off) (2011-06-21)

A test for the Armadillo Aerospace rocket known as "Stig", here the fiberglass nose cone is blown off with air pressure. The nose is held on with nylon screws, and we're evaluating the sequencing of different parts of the deployment process. The tube rocket is about 30 feet long, 15.25" in diameter, and will be working toward 100km. Nose cone work by Phil. Shot and edited by Ben.

Stig rocket final hover before freeflight (2011-06-22)

The final test of the Armadillo Aerospace "tube rocket", named Stig. A liquid oxygen/ethyl alcohol suborbital sounding rocket, the tube rocket will be used to fly scientific payloads to altitudes up to 120km.

Stig rocket launch stand retraction (2011-06-22)

The launch stand for Tube Rocket Stig, a reusable liquid-fueled sounding rocket built by Armadillo Aerospace, is demonstrated in this video. The stand was built to support the 1000+ lb weight of the loaded rocket, but then move away from the rocket as soon as it lifted off by a few inches.

Three ring parachute release demonstration high speed (2011-06-22)

600 fps, or 1/20th speed video of a three ring load release mechanism being disengaged. The three ring is commonly used in parachute systems, both manned and unmanned. Essentially two rings on one side act as levers to reduce the load on a pull wire, retaining or releasing one ring attached to the load.

Tracking video of SuperMod rocket launch and crash (2011-06-22)

Shot by Jared Ortega, a student intern of the New Mexico Spaceport Authority. This is tracking video of the flight of the Armadillo Aerospace rocket of the SuperMod model, named Dalek.

Triple parachute drop test (2011-06-21)

Testing a parachute deployment process by dropping a weight out of an airplane. As you can see there was excellent spatial coordination between the drop team and the recovery team.

Tube rocket onboard video looking up (2011-06-22)

Armadillo Aerospace launching the Tube Rocket named Stig. This camera shows the nose deploy and parachute release.

Tube rocket Stig free flight and crash no audio (2011-06-21)

The Armadillo Aerospace tube rocket Stig launches, has a flight anomaly, and lands at Spaceport America in New Mexico. The file was corrupted which is why there isn't any audio. GoPro HD Hero cameras don't have very good audio anyway.

Tube Rocket Stig out for cryo loading and cold flow testing (2011-06-21)

Armadillo Aerospace's Tube Rocket, named Stig, was being checked out with its first cryogenic load, using liquid nitrogen instead of liquid oxygen. Fuel was also loaded, as well as helium pressurant, to check out all of the rocket's systems. First hot fire comes soon, and shortly thereafter, launch. The audio is a bit odd, sorry about that.