Pixel will launch in two minutes.

…

First leg looked successful, but it did yesterday as well. Some talk that they may have missed the pad on landing. Now it’s looking like the ship tilted on landing.

They’ll definitely have to start over. The question is whether or not they damaged it, which will determine whether or not they have another chance today. If not, the prizes remain unwon for this year, giving hope to Masten and other potential contenders.

[Update a few minutes later]

I just talked to Ken Davidian, of Centennial Challenges. He says that as far as he knows, they could still go with Texel for Level 1, and perhaps for Level 2 as well, if they can get the parts back in her (him?). But if they don’t win a prize today, they have to wait until next year. If so, it will give other teams time to catch up, and make for a more exciting event in 2007.

Just hearing that Tim Pickens will take another rocket bike ride in a couple minutes.

…

A failed ignitor. They may try again later.

Word now is that Pixel landed off the pad, on its side, but there are no fuel leaks. Still unclear whether or not they’ll attempt it again today.

[Update about 10:25]

The Armadillo team just came by the press tent with the wounded Pixel on their way to the staging area from which they’re required to start any next attempt. Still unclear if they’re going to fly it again, or swap the parts back into Texel. I’ll go over and see if John has time to talk.

[A couple minutes later]

“We’re going to get a sandwich, dust it off, make sure the bolts are tight, and then try it again.”

Literally. Fifteen minutes until LOX pressurization on Pixel.

Congratulations to Mark Whittington, who has managed to get a column about COTS and Bigelow into today’s WaPo.

Yeah, I know, it’s a mixed metaphor. Carmack and crew worked overnight to repair Pixel by cannibalizing Texel. Unfortunately, they also found a cracked combustion chamber on the engine that came down hard, and have also replaced it with a higher-life version, so John says that there’s a slightly higher chance of an engine failure today.

If they succeed with the Level 1, they’ll put the missing bits back into Texel and try for Level 2. But even if not, they may fly Texel anyway, just to beat the old DC-X flight duration record of 142 seconds.

And as I type this, there’s about to be a dual Tripoli launch. Two minutes to launch.

…

And both flights were successful, about a minute apart. There were small sonic booms in both cases.

By the way, any more trollish off-topic comments like those yesterday will be deleted with extreme prejudice. I’ll leave the ones from yesterday up, since others have commented on them, and they’re a continuing testament to the putrid imbecility and vandalistic mentality of too many leftists.

OK, one more post (really, I can quit any time I want).

I just talked to John Carmack. They’ll have to cannibalize, but they can swap parts quickly, so they are planning to make another attempt to win Level 1 tomorrow with Pixel, using Texel parts. If they succeed, and have sufficient time left, they may move the parts back to Texel and go for Level 2. But as I said, even a recovery to win Level 1 is a great story.

He was pretty happy with the vehicle performance (other than the hard landing, which they’ll fix by changing some of the parameters in the software), other than a small roll oscillation (~1 degree) that causes some ullage issues (I assume by “roll” he means the vertical axis). He’ll try tweaking the software, but the only way to really fix it, which will occur in the next vehicle, is getting rid of the solenoids controlling valves, which are causing unacceptable lag, and going back to differential throttling. At least, that’s what I think he told me.

Anyway, I’m really done now. Packing up computer, and heading into town. See you tomorrow.

OK, one more post (really, I can quit any time I want).

I just talked to John Carmack. They’ll have to cannibalize, but they can swap parts quickly, so they are planning to make another attempt to win Level 1 tomorrow with Pixel, using Texel parts. If they succeed, and have sufficient time left, they may move the parts back to Texel and go for Level 2. But as I said, even a recovery to win Level 1 is a great story.

He was pretty happy with the vehicle performance (other than the hard landing, which they’ll fix by changing some of the parameters in the software), other than a small roll oscillation (~1 degree) that causes some ullage issues (I assume by “roll” he means the vertical axis). He’ll try tweaking the software, but the only way to really fix it, which will occur in the next vehicle, is getting rid of the solenoids controlling valves, which are causing unacceptable lag, and going back to differential throttling. At least, that’s what I think he told me.

Anyway, I’m really done now. Packing up computer, and heading into town. See you tomorrow.

OK, one more post (really, I can quit any time I want).

I just talked to John Carmack. They’ll have to cannibalize, but they can swap parts quickly, so they are planning to make another attempt to win Level 1 tomorrow with Pixel, using Texel parts. If they succeed, and have sufficient time left, they may move the parts back to Texel and go for Level 2. But as I said, even a recovery to win Level 1 is a great story.

He was pretty happy with the vehicle performance (other than the hard landing, which they’ll fix by changing some of the parameters in the software), other than a small roll oscillation (~1 degree) that causes some ullage issues (I assume by “roll” he means the vertical axis). He’ll try tweaking the software, but the only way to really fix it, which will occur in the next vehicle, is getting rid of the solenoids controlling valves, which are causing unacceptable lag, and going back to differential throttling. At least, that’s what I think he told me.

Anyway, I’m really done now. Packing up computer, and heading into town. See you tomorrow.

That’s what Keith Cowing says that Bill Nye is.

I disagree. He’s a lot confused. But what do you expect when you get a “science guy” commenting on general policy?