Apparently the hard starts have only been occurring on the return leg. The current theory is that it’s due to a change in the injector design. Jeff Foust has the details.

Phil Eaton and two other Armadillo staff are removing the engine from the spare Mod.

I think that they’re looking over the injector they just pulled to check it out before installing it into the flight vehicle. Phil Eaton on the left, Matthew Ross in the middle, not sure who’s on the right.

Here’s a modified “Mod” ready to try again.

As I type this, I think they’re heading back out to the launch site for another attempt in forty-five minutes or so. I’ll be heading back out there shortly. Hopefully I’ll be back with pics of a successful flight.

[Update about 2:30 PM MDT]

Well, you may have heard, but there will be no winner this year. All the money remains on the table. I think that’s a good thing, actually, because there are a lot of competitors out here who look almost ready to compete, and in another year many of them should be able to.

The post briefing hasn’t occurred yet. All I know was that when the ignition was supposed to occur, I only heard a bang, followed shortly after by an announcement of a declaration of emergency to put out a fire. Apparently it was yet another hard start, and it ended Armadillo’s chances for a win this year.

Neil Milburn reportedly stated at an 11 AM briefing that prior to this weekend, they had never turned the vehicle around in the time necessary to win the prize, which kind of blows my mind. All this time I had been hearing that they were confident because they had flown the profile many times, but apparently that didn’t mean that they had flown the full profile, which requires a return in a fixed time period.

Well, lessons learned. Good luck to them (and all the others) next year.