Armadillo Aerospace Releases STIG Update

Flight of STIG B-II (Credits: Armadillo Aerospace).

Flight of Stig-B II (Credits: Armadillo Aerospace).

“It’s been some time since we did an update on our progress,” begins Armadillo Aerospace’s Neil Milburn at the beginning of the four part Stig-B Program Update the company published over the course of February. One year since their last update, Armadillo covers a lot of ground, recounting in detail their three Stig-B test launches, the development that went into the rocket – down to x-raying of their new welding technique –  and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) licensing process.

The Stig-B made it through three launches before making an ignominous end when its ballute failed to deploy. Armadillo made available a video of the launch and landing – with commentary – that is available below. “So much for the third time is a charm!” wrote Milburn. 

“However, we can take away many positives from the experience,” he continued. “The game plan moving forward is to build a mini fleet of at least three or possibly more STIG vehicles.”

 

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Merryl Azriel

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Having wandered into professional writing and editing after a decade in engineering, science, and management, Merryl now enjoys reintegrating the dichotomy by bringing space technology and policy within reach of an interested public. After three years as Space Safety Magazine’s Managing Editor, Merryl semi-retired to Visiting Contributor and manager of the campaign to bring the International Space Station collaboration to the attention of the Nobel Peace Prize committee. She keeps her pencil sharp as Proposal Manager for U.S. government contractor CSRA.

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