If you destroy it, they will invest

Well, this is certainly interesting. No doubt many of you have already heard about the launch explosion of Space Transportation Corp's Rubicon 1 rocket. I thought that was certainly the death knell for the little X-Prize competitor. They were short on cash to begin with, and lost almost the entirety of their investment in the crash, which they admitted they hadn't run enough pre-flight tests on because they couldn't afford said tests. But it appears that's just the sort of wacky, can-do attitude wealthy investors are looking for:

Rubicon 1 may be shattered, but Sunday's explosive rocket mishap put Space Transport Corp. in the national limelight as an X Prize underdog with a can-do spirit.

The result: A slew of investors have e-mailed the cash-strapped company, saying they are interested in making an investment in the partners' dream of developing space tourism.

"The national attention has been great. We've gotten a flood of e-mail, a lot from potential investors," Space Transport vice president Eric Meier said Monday after he, company president Phillip Storm and volunteers cleaned up the wreckage and debris of Rubicon 1 on the beach near Queets.

If that's so, then it could be good news for Armadillo Aerospace, which also lost its rocket during a test flight on Saturday when the craft ran out of fuel:

It had not hit apogee yet, so the unstable vehicle immediately started rotating, hitting about 50 degrees/second. If the vehicle had been past apogee when it ran out, it probably would have just dropped feet first.

We had telemetry all the way to the time of impact, which matched the video perfectly, landing eight meters from the launch point. The vehicle hit the ground basically sideways, a little tail first. The bottom manway flange broke off the tank, and the 450 pound tank with 180 psi pressure still in it got punted about 200 yards away by the gas release. $35,000 of rocket is now a whole lot of primo Armadillo Droppings.

I wonder if they'll install a fuel gauge on the next rocket they build?

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