With NASA's Future Uncertain, Dallas Rocketeers at Armadillo Aerospace Compete In The Race To Privatize The Final Frontier
By Patrick Michels
published: May 13, 2010
Play it in slow motion, cue the orchestra and cut to a fluttering flag, and this scene could beat the richest Hollywood cliché. The rocket men are returning from their mission, seven of them in matching blue jumpsuits, mission patches on their sleeves. Riding on a massive flatbed truck, they bounce down the road cut through an open field, their rocket still hot from its launch.
One has a badge of duct tape over a gash on his cheek, but it's big grins and waves all around as their families stream out to meet them in the road. A kid in a spacesuit runs out for a hug, rows of fans hang back to snap photos and the boys from NASA stroll up to offer hearty handshakes.
With this kind of welcome, they might as well have returned from landing on the moon. They haven't, of course—haven't even gone into space. On this rainy mid-September day in 2009, the men of Armadillo Aerospace, a private spaceflight company, have just completed the highest level of the X Prize Foundation's Lunar Lander Challenge, putting them in line for a million-dollar prize from NASA.
