We successfully flew the Lunar Lander Challenge Level 1 flight. We are still waiting on the official judges ruling on our qualification to win the $150,000 prize but so far it looks good. We will be posting media links and selective tweets here over the rest of today. Videos will be posted separately when they [...]

Will Pomerantz is using Qik from his phone to provide a live feed from our second attempt at the Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge Level 1 Challenge:

Alan Stern has a good article in the latest Space News: Next-Generation Suborbital Spaceflight: A Research Bonanza at 100 Kilometers. For most people reading our blog you are probably familiar with the unique capabilities that the suborbital spaceflight industry can offer but Alan’s list of features is about as succinct as you can get: Frequent [...]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Masten Space Completes First Untethered Flights, Competes in Challenge Mojave, California – September 21, 2009 – Masten Space Systems successfully demonstrated multiple sustained free flights of its XA-0.1B vertical take-off, vertical landing (VTVL) rocket this past week. The longest flight was 93 seconds and involved a flight between two pads 60 meters [...]

***MEDIA ALERT***MEDIA ALERT***MEDIA ALERT*** MASTEN SPACE SYSTEMS ATTEMPTS LAUNCH OF LUNAR LANDER ROCKET VEHICLE TO QUALIFY FOR NORTHROP GRUMMAN LUNAR LANDER CHALLENGE MILLION DOLLAR PRIZE Launch Scheduled For Sept. 16, 2009 at Mojave Air & Space Port, CA WHAT: On Sept. 16, Masten Space Systems will be the second of at least three teams attempting [...]

In preparation for our Lunar Lander Challenge flight tomorrow the company just flew its first untethered free flight! Video and details to come soon! Ain’t that the most beautiful thing you’ve ever seen?!

We are getting so close! These were from earlier today:

XPRIZE has announced the 2009 Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge flight schedule: * Armadillo Aerospace will attempt to claim a Level 2 purse from Caddo Mills, TX, on September 12 and 13. * Masten Space Systems will attempt to claim purses in both levels from Mojave, CA, on September 15-16 (Level One), October 7-8 (Level [...]

Just some eye candy in this post. Xombie got its new legs today. Jon is working on a more complete set of update posts we plan on posting in next week or two.

It’s been more than a month since the last time I did a detailed technical update, so for those who are interested here are some more of the gory details on our propulsion development work.