Armadillo Aerospace
Armadillo Aerospace was an aerospace startup company based in Mesquite, Texas. Its initial goal was to build a crewed suborbital spacecraft capable of space tourism, and it had also stated long-term ambitions of orbital spaceflight. The company was founded by John Carmack, co-founder and former chief technical officer of id Software.
| Company type | Privately held |
|---|---|
| Industry | Aerospace |
| Founded | 2000 |
| Founder | John Carmack |
| Fate | out of business |
| Successor | Exos Aerospace |
| Headquarters | Mesquite, Texas |
Key people | John Carmack |
| Products | Rocket vehicles/Space Tourism |
| Website | www |
On October 24, 2008, Armadillo won $350,000 by succeeding in the Level 1 Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge. On September 12, 2009, Armadillo won $500,000 by succeeding in Level 2 of the same challenge.
In 2010, they signed an exclusive deal with Space Adventures. Armadillo Aerospace was to provide a suborbital rocket to fly tourists into space, while Space Adventures would sell tickets for the experience.
In August 2013, Carmack announced that Armadillo Aerospace had been put in "hibernation mode", following setbacks including the crash of the STIG-B rocket in January 2013.
In May 2014, several former employees of Armadillo Aerospace formed a new company, Exos Aerospace, which was created to carry their former company's research into reusable commercial spacecraft. The new company set up their operations in one of Armadillo's former facilities at the Caddo Mills Municipal Airport, in Texas. Exos completed acquisition of Armadillo assets in early 2015, and intended to begin launches of the Suborbital Active Rocket with Guidance (SARGE) in 2016 from Spaceport America in New Mexico. SARGE will be an enhanced Armadillo STIG-B. The first flight of SARGE took place in 2018 from Spaceport America.
In September 2017, John Carmack retweeted a post about SpaceX rocket bloopers, along with his post "I showed all of our crashes at the beginning of Armadillo Aerospace, but everyone thought it was a terrible idea and talked me out of it." In the comment section, one person asked if there's chance of comeback for Armadillo Aerospace. He subsequently replied that there is the chance that he might "want to try at some point" with his own scheme, giving a sign that Armadillo Aerospace could someday return from hibernation mode.