Armadillo Tube Rocket
 
 

Armadillo Aerospace LLC

Armadillo Aerospace was suspended in 2013. The new company Exos Aerospace Systems and Technologies has evidently purchased some or all of Armadillo Aerospace's equipment and facility.

Armadillo Aerospace Developing a Tube Rocket
Armadillo Aerospace has announced they are working on a new rocket. The announcement was made by Ben Brockert on Armadillo�s web site. The tube rocket is named "STIG" (Suborbital Transport with Inertial Guidance).

�From our perspective it is a Supermod whose 36 inch spherical tanks have been replaced by 15.25 inch cylindrical tanks with a common bulkhead. Otherwise it is quite similar to our other vehicles; low pressure LOX/alcohol as propellant, regulated helium pressurization, the same type of engine as a Mod, the same engine gimbal and roll vane for guidance and control, and the same computer box and plumbing schematic.�

The tube rocket will be quite capable as a sounding rocket. The native payload size is 15 inch diameter by a variable length. The first flight has the goal to exceed 100,000 feet (30.5km). Armadillo Aerospace will launching and recovering the rocket at Spaceport America in New Mexico this year (2011).

Future tube rocket plans
Armadillo will modifying the vehicle toward reaching space, i.e. 100km.

"Modifications will include reducing the weight in some places where it came out heavier than necessary, and putting a larger and more efficient engine on. The next full iteration of the tube rocket will include some research we did on improving the tanks another step, allowing us to run at higher pressure without increasing the weight."

Another idea is the clustering of this vehicle:
"This vehicle should be able to handily get past 100km, even though we are going to be conservative on the first flight attempt and just be happy to exceed 100,000 feet. We have lots of fairly straightforward axis for improving the performance -- fair over the exposed bits to reduce drag, increase the nozzle expansion ratio, move to one of our newer injector designs, and, of course, take weight out of it.
Once we show that the vehicle can clearly fly to space, clustering will improve the payload fraction -- two tubes = a single computer box and no roll vane (differential gimbal like titan), four tubes = fixed engines with better plumbing flow and less actuators, etc."

New Mexico Spaceport -- Armadillo has launched successfully a "STIG-A" reusable sub-orbital rocket on December 04, 2011.
STIG-A made a maximum speed of mach 2.47 and maximum acceleration of 3.85G, hauling its 32 foot long and 15.25 inch diameter tube to an apogee of 140,000 feet above sea level, 42.67 kilometers. Gross lift off weight was around 1600 pounds, running on liquid oxygen and denatured ethanol. The launch pad is at 4560 feet above sea level, making the climb from launch altitude about 135,400 feet.
The rocket's position over the pad had been held well; at 18,000 feet above launch pad the rocket was only thirty feet away from being perfectly above the pad. However, once the gimbal was locked the vehicle began a slow arc over. 38.5 seconds into the burn, when the vehicle hit the maximum range of 7km, the engine was shut down and the vehicle was left to coast to apogee. A full burn would have been closer to 50 seconds.

 New Mexico Spaceport -- On January 28, 2012 Armadillo Aerospace launched the rocket STIG-A at Spaceport America for a second time. After a 169.5 second ascent, it reached an apogee of between 90 and 95 km above sea level. On the way back down the recovery system failed, and the rocket was destroyed by impact with the ground.
STIG-A was mostly the same as what flew in December; all of the primary structure like tanks and plumbing were in good shape. The recovery and pressurization body tubes were replaced, and the attachment of the pressurization section was beefed up with two rows of screws. The fin can and boat tail were replaced. The engine had a new nozzle extension welded on, to get more performance (about 22 kN) over the full burn.


Precursor of STIG-A
Failed launch in May 2011

The inaugural flight of STIG-B  is scheduled for this August (2012) with of goal of reaching an altitude of 100 kilometers. The launcher will carrying two revenue payloads, one for Vega Space and the other for the University of Purdue, and, if successful, this will qualify the STIG (Suborbital Transport with Inertial Guidance) vehicles for NASA's Flight Opportunities Program.
The launch will take place from Spaceport America in New Mexico and will be the first licensed launch from the Spaceport. The company hopes to complete 24 flights of the STIG-B within the next two years.
STIG-B is still undergoing assembly and details of its design are not yet available. However, Neil Milburn, Armadillo Aerospace's VP of Program Management, has revealed STIG-B is slightly bigger than STIG-A, measuring 34 feet long and 20 inches in diameter.