Black Armadillo
Armadillo Aerospace continues development of its vehicle, Black Armadillo, which was previously planned as the company's Ansari X Prize entrant. Armadillo Aerospace plans to continue pursuing suborbital passenger flights and microgravity research. The vehicle will consist of an autonomously guided single stage powered by a single engine fueled by a bi-modal monopropellant hydrogen peroxide/ methanol mixture and will use guide vanes for the thrust-vectored attitude control system (ACS). The vehicle is approximately 1.83 meters (6 feet) in diameter, 9.14 meters (30 feet) in height, and 771 kilograms (1,700 pounds) dry weight. Recovery is by way of a fully autonomous powered landing.
In 2004, Armadillo conducted numerous engine tests and flight tests. One test on August 8 resulted in
the loss of the test vehicle. Much of the rest of 2004 was focused on rebuilding and testing hardware. The company switched from a 90 percent hydrogen peroxide fuel to a mixed monopropellant design because
of lack of availability of the original fuel. The switch has introduced delays in the program.
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