Armadillo Stiga rocket high altitude launch to nearspace

December 4 2011 launch of Armadillo Aerospace Stiga at Spaceport America. Apogee is near 140,000 ft above sea level. More details to come at http://www.armadilloaerospace.com/

• Category

  Science & Technology

[DoctorGarkle]

THAT is truly impressive. How do you get a solid fuel motor to burn for so long?

[armadilloaerospace]

It's not a solid motor, it's liquid oxygen and ethanol.

[mcast1286]

Congratulations! A question: is the land mass in the video at @ 1:25 onward, Africa, or could it be Australia?

[armadilloaerospace]

This was launched in New Mexico. The farthest thing that can be seen is Mexico, and not clearly. Any visible ground features are in the area of Truth or Consequences, NM.

[weaponeer]

dang fine job, and a great accomplishment. Wish I lived close to the launch area to watch the progress. I have always had a great interest in rockets, and strangly especially the recovery stage and chute design. Your drogue chute actually looks like a standard pilot chute. The Stiga looks like its a great stepping point towards providing a light payload into space with recovery and reuse of the majority of the components (or more with controlled reentry of payload section)

[armadilloaerospace]

It's a ballute, so not a standard pilot chute.

[DoctorGarkle]

Sorry, for some reason I assumed it was.

[TheRealNici]

2:10 I love the absolute silence

[Don Lind]

Very nice... been waiting a long time for black sky. :-) Congrats!

[pyrotek40]

Great rocket shot!

[sharkzf6]

It just goes to show that some things DO require rocket science! Congrats!!