Armadillo Aerospace
Armadillo Aerospace is an aerospace startup company based in Mesquite, Texas. Its initial goal is to build a manned suborbital spacecraft capable of winning the Ansari X-Prize, but it has stated long-term ambitions of orbital spaceflight.
Armadillo is led (and largely funded) by John Carmack, a developer of computer games including DOOM and Quake. All of its employees (including Carmack) have other, full-time jobs and contribute their efforts to Armadillo on a voluntary basis. Like other Ansari X-Prize candidates, Armadillo runs on a relatively small budget, i.e., without support from major aerospace companies or agencies like NASA, ESA, or Boeing. Armadillo Aerospace has publicly declared itself fully self-funded.[1] As of July, 2004, Carmack estimates he has spent around US$1.5 million of his id Software fortune on the project, a tiny sum compared with the budgets of established manned spaceflight programs.
Armadillo's uses modern computer technology to simplify and reduce costs of rockets. For example, instead of stabilization fins which complicate the design and increase drag, it uses an aerodynamically unstable design, where the computer controls jet vanes and throttles the engine based on feedback from fiber optic gyroscopes. Armadillo also has stated a preference for simplicity and reliability over performance, which is evident in its choice of hydrogen peroxide and methanol as a mixed monopropellant for its Ansari X-Prize class vehicle.