Armadillo Aerospace's STIG A rocket launches from Spaceport America. (Credit: Space Adventures)

UPDATED at 1:56 p.m. PST with corrected altitude via corrected press release

Upham, NM — New Mexico Spaceport Authority (NMSA) officials announced today a successful launch over the weekend of an advanced sounding rocket designed and built by Armadillo Aerospace. The launch took place from Spaceport America’s vertical launch complex on Sun., Dec. 4. The test flight was a non-public, unpublished event at the request of Armadillo Aerospace, as the company is testing proprietary advanced launch technologies.

Saturday’s Armadillo launch successfully lifted off at approximately 11:00 a.m. (MST), which was within the dedicated, five-hour launch window, and reached its projected sub-orbital altitude of 137,500 feet (41.91 km).
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Armadillo Aerospace’s third lunar lander free flight of NASA’s Project M. (Thanks to Clark Lindsey over at Hobby Space.)

Several weeks ago, it was announced that a Mystery Team (pictured above, in stock photo) had become the fourth group to join the Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge.

Today, the identity of said team was revealed on The Launch Pad :

Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge continues to heat up, with a FOURTH competitor now officially entered in the race for the remaining purses. Team BonNovA, stationed in Mojave, CA, will be flying their Lauryad I & II vehicles on October 26-27, 2009 at Cantil, CA. We are definitely excited to see what they have in store for the competition.

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