Armadillo starts making money

[radarredux]

John Carmack's other company, Armadillo Aerospace, may soon be cash flow positive. They have picked up a sponsor, NVIDIA, are in a good position to win some cash at the X-Prize Cup, and have lined up a few customers.<br /><br />From their latest posting:<blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr /><p>NVIDIA is Armadillo Aerospace’s official sponsor for the X-Prize Cup events this year.<br />...<br />There is a chance at this point that I may have written the last personal check I need to for Armadillo. This sponsorship will cover all of our expenses through the X-Prize Cup, and I expect to come away from that with some prize money. If we run the table with first prize wins in both categories, we will be doing great. It still wouldn’t cover all the money I have put in over the last five years, but it should be plenty to take us through the commercialization of the current technologies. We have several customers ready to pay for flights even below the “man to 100km” goal of the suborbital space tourism market, so I don’t think we are too far off. If we don’t pocket the big prize, we will still carry on at our current pace, but if we get the extra money we will be stepping things up by bringing more of the team on full time.<p><hr /></p></p></blockquote><br />http://www.armadilloaerospace.com/n.x/Armadillo/Home/News?news_id=331

 

[davf]

One of the gurus of 3D software coupled with one of the gurus of 3D hardware spells conspiracy to me! I will fail to believe that any video they show from now on is anything more than something faked in a lab. <img src="/images/icons/wink.gif" />

 

[crix]

This is so awesome. I've been following SpaceX and Armadillo Aerospace since their beginnings and I'm so happy to see so much real progress and bright futures ahaed. It's so cool that Carmack threw himself into the space business after he was done with Doom3. I hope they win the X-Prize lunar lander analogue competition.

 

[qso1]

All we can do is wait and see if they get past the point where they can no longer fake in a lab. I recall this company as far back as 1998 when I found their website, whatever it was called then. At that time, they had nice 3D graphics and no hardware. Maybe theyre serious, will see. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><strong>My borrowed quote for the time being:</strong></p><p><em>There are three kinds of people in life. Those who make it happen, those who watch it happen...and those who do not know what happened.</em></p> </div>

 

[nacnud]

Are you claming Armadillo haven't built any hardware? Out of all the new space companies they are the most open about showing hardware development. Take a look at their website, it's full of rockets being built and tested.

 

[alokmohan]

Wait and see!!

 

[radarredux]

> <i><font color="yellow">All we can do is wait and see if they get past the point where they can no longer fake in a lab.</font>/i><br /><br />They have probably run more tests than just about anyone else, and they have put up a large number of videos of many of these tests. A few of these tests have included spectacular failures (e.g., when one of their rockets dropped from the sky).<br /><br />They also did a test flight at last year's X-Prize Cup, but on their first flight the rocket landed slightly off the small landing pad, the landing gear hit mud, and then the rocket tipped over. So what had been planned as multiple launch attempts turned into a single launch.<br /><br />If someone wants to get involved in their own large-scale hobby rocket design, they should begin by reading all the online material Armadillo has posted. Descriptions from everything from handling fuel to weld designs are well covered.</i>

 

[PistolPete]

You know, I had almost forgotten about Armadillo Aerospace. Can't wait to see 'em at the X-Prize cup. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p><em>So, again we are defeated. This victory belongs to the farmers, not us.</em></p><p><strong>-Kambei Shimada from the movie Seven Samurai</strong></p> </div>

 

[davf]

I was making that comment in jest... <br /><br />I actually admire Carmack's work to date. They've come a long way since those early photos of the lawn chair with the hydrogen peroxide rockets mounted on it. They've been very open in publishing all of their failures as well as their successes. I think they have a very realistic and well-grounded attitude and see no reason they won't succeed provided the money keeps flowing. nVidia's involvement helps in that regard. Kudos to Armadillo!