First Winner of Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge Awarded $350,000 Prize

Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE:NOC) congratulates Armadillo Aerospace, the first winner in the Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge. The entrepreneurial company received its $350,000 prize today in a ceremony at NASA Headquarters.

The Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge, part of NASA’s Centennial Challenges series, is a two-level, $2 million competition designed to accelerate commercial space technology. The competition motivates companies to develop and prove concepts for space vehicles that could safely ferry humans or cargo back and forth between lunar orbit and the lunar surface.

Armadillo Aerospace of Rockwall, Tex., designed and demonstrated a space vehicle that won the Oct. 24-25 competition when it rose to a height of 50 meters, translated to a landing pad 100 meters away while staying aloft for at least 90 seconds, then landed safely. Later, it repeated the flight. The competition was conducted at Las Cruces International Airport, N.M.

“Northrop Grumman Corporation is extremely proud to sponsor this competition,” said Carl Meade, director of Space Systems for Northrop Grumman’s Integrated Systems sector. “As the company that designed and built the Apollo Lunar Modules, and as one of NASA’s key partners in helping to achieve the nation’s vision for space exploration, we believe in fostering innovation and entrepreneurship to meet the challenge.”

The X PRIZE Foundation manages the competition on behalf of NASA, which provides the prize money. The first Lunar Lander Challenge was held in October 2006. The Challenge will continue annually until all the money has been awarded, or until October 2010, whichever comes first.

Sponsorship of the competition complements Northrop Grumman’s strategic support for educational programs that help create and ensure a technically competent workforce for the future. For example, the company also sponsors the Weightless Flights of Discovery teacher development program.

The Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge is supported by the New Mexico Spaceport Authority, the State of New Mexico, and Northrop Grumman. The X PRIZE Foundation manages the Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge for the NASA Centennial Challenges Program.

Northrop Grumman Corporation is a global defense and technology company whose 120,000 employees provide innovative systems, products, and solutions in information and services, electronics, aerospace and shipbuilding to government and commercial customers worldwide.

HALL RECOGNIZES WINNER OF THE LEVEL ONE LUNAR LANDER CHALLENGE

Washington, D.C. – Science and Technology Committee Ranking Member Ralph Hall (R-TX) today recognized Armadillo Aerospace for winning the first level of the Lunar Lander Challenge.

“By winning the first level of the competition, Armadillo Aerospace has turned innovative thinking into a proven capability that could give rise to entirely new space industries in the future,” Hall said.

The Challenge is a $2 million prize contest set up through NASA, the X-Prize Foundation and Northrop Grumman, which is intended to accelerate the development of commercial technologies leading to lunar landers that can ferry payloads or humans from lunar orbit to the lunar surface.

The first level challenge entailed building a rocket that can ascend 50 meters, move horizontally to perform a soft landing on a pad, and then return to the original launch pad within two-and-a-half hours. Armadillo Aerospace, a company located in Ranking Member Hall’s hometown of Rockwall, Texas, successfully completed this ambitious achievement on October 25, 2008.

“The idea of offering prize competitions for successfully achieving a particular breakthrough is not new, but it is a very creative approach,” Hall added. “Since NASA first proposed the use of innovation prizes to encourage competition, our Science and Technology Committee has supported the concept. First, we authorized the Centennial Challenges Program in the NASA Authorization Act of 2005, and most recently reaffirmed our support in this year’s NASA Authorization Act of 2008, P.L. 110-422, directing the agency to award prizes up to $50 million.”