I missed the first flight, but it was successful. The second one was beautiful right up until the end, when the burn seemed to end prematurely, and the vehicle reportedly fell over on landing. It was difficult to see, because it was obscured by all the dust kicked up from the long hover. More pics in a few minutes.

[A few minutes later]

The above is the long shot from which the top picture was digitally zoomed (I took it with an 18x optical lens, 504mm equivalent).

Below is a picture of all the dust being kicked up during the hover.

They flew beautifully for the whole flight, but got back above the landing pad early (the flight has to be at least ninety seconds long). They were hovering for what seemed like almost half a minute. The announcer stated that they were hovering close to the ground so that if anything went wrong at the end, it wouldn’t have far to fall.

I’ve no idea what happened, so this is pure speculation. Perhaps they’re not used to flying in the dirt, and didn’t anticipate how much dust would be kicked up. If something in that cloud affected vehicle systems, it will be kind of ironic that in attempting to play it safe, they may have accidentally doomed the attempt at almost the last second.

In any event, John will have something to say shortly. All the money is still on the table. He gets two more tries tomorrow.

[Update a couple minutes later]

Wired (for whom a couple of stringers are sitting across from me) is covering it as well.

[Update at 3:45 MDT]

Clark has more, as does Jeff Foust, Alan Boyle and Leonard David.

[Update a little after four]

Alan Boyle told me that he talked to Neil Milburn, so this is second barstool down, but the prevailing theory seems to be that they had the same problem on the second flight as they did this morning–a restricted fuel line due to contamination. This morning it resulted in a failure to ignite. This afternoon, it resulted in a LOX-rich burn at a higher-than-normal temperature, which apparently cracked the combustion chamber a few seconds before the end of the flight. If so, so much for my “dust theory” above.

They have spare parts, so they can repair overnight and go for it again in the morning. I assume that part of the overnight maintenance will include a complete dismantling and cleansing of the propellant lines…

[Evening update]

You can probably find more details at other places, but my understanding is that they actually had a hard start (that’s a rocket engineering euphemism for “had an explosion in the combustion chamber at ignition”) on the return flight, and they were surprised that it lasted as long as it did, because it was apparently shedding parts through the whole flight. That would explain why they wanted to complete the trip so quickly and then just hover above the pad and hope that they could stay aloft for the full ninety seconds. They came pretty close.

Better luck on the morrow, with a rebuilt vehicle.

Off now to a Space Frontier Foundation reception at the Ramada in Las Cruces.

Armadillo just started back out to the pad for their afternoon attempt. They reportedly had a contaminated line, that they cleaned. Someone was asking me this morning what their chances are, and I (and most others) thought pretty good, given that they’ve already done it, just not here. But things can happen in transport, and things can happen in different venues, and there are no guarantees. The money may still be on the table at the end of the weekend. We’ll soon see, or at least we’ll soon see if they have to wait until tomorrow for one last attempt.

My problems with the Internet are everyone’s. The bandwidth is available in the press HQ, and it’s plentiful. Unfortunately, that building is a ten to fifteen minute walk from the press tent on the flight line, which has no power, and no Internet. It does have a good view, and shade though.

Here are some pictures:

This is the backup to “Mod,” the Level 1 vehicle that was hastily thrown together to replace “Texel, which died in a fire during a test a couple months ago. At the time this was taken, the primary version hadn’t come back from the aborted attempt this morning.

The above is a view of the return of the vehicles after this morning’s scrub. “Pixel” (shown below closeup, and the Level 2 vehicle) is in the front, with “Mod” behind.

But with problematic Internet connection (no Internet or power in the press tent). But Clark Lindsey is all over it. Just keep scrolling. The key story is that Armadillo made an attempt at Level 1 at 9 AM but scrubbed until this afternoon due to an ignition problem.

Orbital Outfitters had a press conference at 10 AM at which they premiered their suborbital space suit. It was modeled by its designer, and is aimed initially at the pilot market. A passenger version will be coming along later.

[Update about 1 PM MDT]

In answer to Louise’s questions, it was a working prototype, and the suit was pressurized (not sure to what psi), but there was no comm system. The visor did seem to open pretty easily. I think that there may have been some pockets, but they could be easily added. One of the claimed features is the ability to customize and colorize.

Speaking of the Museum of Space History, as I said, Clark and I visited it. I hadn’t been there since 1993 (when I was out here for one of the DC-X flights) and he had never been.

It’s a beautiful building in a beautiful location, overlooking the valley with the white gypsum sands of the national monument and test range in the distance, with lots of interesting artifacts. But the exhibits seem quite out of date, and are often misleading (particularly the older ones). still Some of it seems frozen in the mid-eighties. If your only source for what was going on in space was this museum, you would think that Russia was flying Buran, and planning a fleet of four or five vehicles. You would think that Ariane IV was the most current version, and that there was no Delta new than Delta II, or Atlas built after the eighties version. Much of the text description is written in present tense, with no way for the reader to know that it is a couple decades out of date. (A more minor issue is that they have the date of the Apollo fire as January 26th, rather than the 27th, and this error has apparently adorned their walls for many years).

I know that it costs money to update and reprint displays, but you would think that with modern computer and printer technology it shouldn’t be that hard. There would be no shortage of visitors, like me (and Clark) who could point out problems to them if there were some easy way to do so. They need an army of editors, and then some good volunteers (who they apparently have already) to implement the fixes.

On the positive side, the newer wing on commercial space, and New Mexico’s role in it, is good (even if there is a little too much NM hucksterism and exaggeration in it). I recommend seeing it, but take some of the displays with a grain (or large bag) of salt, particularly the ones written in present and future tense.

Just a few hours after the end of it, Alan Boyle (who was too burned out to have dinner with me, Jeff Foust, and Clark Lindsey this evening) has a good wrap up of the event.

Off to Holloman in the morning for a pre-Cup press activity.

[Update a little after 10 Mountain time]

Alan also has a report on the hurdles ahead for the Spaceport America.

Bob Bigelow (who is not in attendance at this Personal Spaceflight Symposium) is apparently offering three quarters of a billion dollars for a launch contract:

The contract or purchase agreement would be worth $760 million in total for eight launches. To show that Bigelow Aerospace is serious, it will deposit $100 million in an escrow bank account up front if the plan goes forward.

The potential offer tops the $500 million NASA has budgeted for its Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) programme, which is part of the agency’s own effort to spur development of commercial orbital crew launch capabilities.

Sounds like he’s finally starting to get serious about solving the launch problem.

[Update a few minutes later]

I find the timing of this announcement interesting. I doubt that it’s a coincidence that he decided to do it the same week that NASA issued an announcement for a COTS recompetition.

If one believes that one of the reasons that RpK had trouble closing their financing was because people didn’t believe that the NASA market could be counted upon, this provides a useful secondary (or even primary) market to help make the business case. Perhaps it was his intention to help the COTS competitors get their financing lined up.

Clark Lindsey has the first two Thursday morning sessions covered here and here.

From Jeff Foust.

Leonard David reports that, like last year, Armadillo will be the only competitor this year for the Lunar Lander Challenge.

While it would certainly have been more interesting, and I’m sure that the X-Prize Cup folks are disappointed, the important thing about prizes is that they’re won, not how many competitors there are. Good luck to John and the team. But of course, as they saw last year, there are no guarantees, except that they won’t have to break any ties. As Yoda would say, they will either do, or do not.

I’m not in the room, but sitting out on the patio checking email, listening to the speakers on the…speakers. Listening to an astronaut (not sure which one) describing his flight experiences, and the awe and wonder of seeing an 800-mile-long aurora borealis from orbit. Listening to the whole panel (including Anousheh Ansari), I’m once again boggled at people who think that the spaceflight experience will be a “fad,” or that once a few people have done it the interest will drop off, or that no one will want a repeat trip.

[Update late afternoon]

Clark Lindsey has much more extensive coverage of the space tourism sessions.