5 ms·

Whatever happened to armadillo aerospace?

by johng 2y ago

throwaway2037 2y ago
Wiki says: > In August 2013, Carmack indicated that following the crash of the STIG-B rocket earlier that year, he had wound down the company operations and had put the company in "hibernation mode." > In 2015, the assets of Armadillo Aerospace were sold to EXOS Aerospace Systems & Technologies, Inc.
mikepurvis 2y ago
Excessive hubris around solving hardware problems in software, they blew up their rocket and ran out of money as Carmack couldn’t justify it any longer: https://www.reddit.com/r/space/comments/82qkvl/john_carmack_about_what_happened_with_armadillo/ https://www.reddit.com/r/space/comments/82qkvl/john_carmack_...
- modeless 2y ago
  I think it's just more that Carmack didn't want to go all in with his entire life and net worth the way Elon did (and without which SpaceX would certainly have died exactly the same death). And who can blame him?
  - WalterBright 2y ago
    Musk went all in with Tesla, too. At one point he was down to about $200,000 and was a few hours from bankruptcy of Tesla and himself. Musk is an enormous risk taker.
    - sillysaurusx 2y ago
      Would you mind providing a source?
      - WalterBright 2y ago
        "The deal ended up closing on Christmas Eve, hours before Tesla would have gone bankrupt. Musk had just a few hundred thousand dollars left and could not have made payroll the next day." "Elon Musk" by Ashlee Vance, pg 210
    - SEJeff 2y ago
      It was a month, not a few hours, and I have no idea where you got the $200,000 number. That is certainly not what Elon himself said. He said 1 month. https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1323640901248393217 https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1323640901248393217
      - modeless 2y ago
        The reason you have no idea is you're talking about different instances of near bankruptcy for Tesla. Which tends to support GP's point.
        SEJeff 2y ago
        What other instances? That was the really obvious one during model 3 “production hell” as they scaled up production mostly on hopium assuming they’d sell.
        modeless 2y ago
        2008 https://www.businesstoday.in/technology/news/story/elon-musks-christmas-eve-miracle-how-he-saved-tesla-from-bankruptcy-398108-2023-09-12 https://www.businesstoday.in/technology/news/story/elon-musk...
    - sneak 2y ago
      It’s easy to take risks if the failure condition is “still a multimillionaire”. I refuse to think any sufficiently clever billionaire doesn’t have $1-10M in gold buried in a couple geographically distributed places. I know several people with NW of <$50M who have stashed 2-4% of their assets away in this fashion. World wars happen, governments collapse, favor shifts, etc. Why wouldn’t you have a backup plan when it’s just pennies? I refuse to believe that he was ever at risk of having less than 5-10M in pocket money left over after everything implodes.
      - Tade0 2y ago
        Why bother when you can just have real estate instead? I'm likely missing something here, but to me this minimises the problem to just a reduction in the number of properties you can move into (assuming some are lost and some of the others sold).
        sneak 2y ago
        Title to real estate, as well as its ability to be liquidated, rests wholly in the cooperation of the state, as well as their recognition of your legitimate title to same. I’m reminded of the end of Godfather 2. 10-20kg of gold coins buried at gps coordinates in the deep desert has no such limitations. I think a lot of ultrawealthy who have experience playing the geopolitical game probably must have some hedges like this. Doesn’t Thiel have NZ citizenship without any explicit intention of residing there? It’s not like value stored like this loses its utility even if the state doesn’t collapse/confiscate your assets/persecute you. I can’t imagine circumstances where one would end up being a billionaire then ever being a not-millionaire unless you’re thick as a brick.
      - WalterBright 2y ago
        [flagged]
      - nordsieck 2y ago
        > I refuse to think any sufficiently clever billionaire doesn’t have $1-10M in gold buried in a couple geographically distributed places. Maybe you don't remember this, but Elon wasn't a Billionaire with his exit from Paypal. He made his bones with Tesla/SpaceX (honestly, mostly Tesla, but we'll see how SpaceX turns out, it could be bigger in the end).
    - deleted 2y ago
      [deleted]
    - hi-v-rocknroll 2y ago
      It's probably no coincidence that Bill Gates was also. Bet the farm 2-3x at least.

Whatever happened to armadillo aerospace?

by johng 2y ago

Whatever happened to armadillo aerospace?

throwaway2037 2y ago

Wiki says: > In August 2013, Carmack indicated that following the crash of the STIG-B rocket earlier that year, he had wound down the company operations and had put the company in "hibernation mode." > In 2015, the assets of Armadillo Aerospace were sold to EXOS Aerospace Systems & Technologies, Inc.

mikepurvis 2y ago

Excessive hubris around solving hardware problems in software, they blew up their rocket and ran out of money as Carmack couldn’t justify it any longer: https://www.reddit.com/r/space/comments/82qkvl/john_carmack_about_what_happened_with_armadillo/ https://www.reddit.com/r/space/comments/82qkvl/john_carmack_...

modeless 2y ago
I think it's just more that Carmack didn't want to go all in with his entire life and net worth the way Elon did (and without which SpaceX would certainly have died exactly the same death). And who can blame him?
- WalterBright 2y ago
  Musk went all in with Tesla, too. At one point he was down to about $200,000 and was a few hours from bankruptcy of Tesla and himself. Musk is an enormous risk taker.
  - sillysaurusx 2y ago
    Would you mind providing a source?
    - WalterBright 2y ago
      "The deal ended up closing on Christmas Eve, hours before Tesla would have gone bankrupt. Musk had just a few hundred thousand dollars left and could not have made payroll the next day." "Elon Musk" by Ashlee Vance, pg 210
  - SEJeff 2y ago
    It was a month, not a few hours, and I have no idea where you got the $200,000 number. That is certainly not what Elon himself said. He said 1 month. https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1323640901248393217 https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1323640901248393217
    - modeless 2y ago
      The reason you have no idea is you're talking about different instances of near bankruptcy for Tesla. Which tends to support GP's point.
      - SEJeff 2y ago
        What other instances? That was the really obvious one during model 3 “production hell” as they scaled up production mostly on hopium assuming they’d sell.
        modeless 2y ago
        2008 https://www.businesstoday.in/technology/news/story/elon-musks-christmas-eve-miracle-how-he-saved-tesla-from-bankruptcy-398108-2023-09-12 https://www.businesstoday.in/technology/news/story/elon-musk...
  - sneak 2y ago
    It’s easy to take risks if the failure condition is “still a multimillionaire”. I refuse to think any sufficiently clever billionaire doesn’t have $1-10M in gold buried in a couple geographically distributed places. I know several people with NW of <$50M who have stashed 2-4% of their assets away in this fashion. World wars happen, governments collapse, favor shifts, etc. Why wouldn’t you have a backup plan when it’s just pennies? I refuse to believe that he was ever at risk of having less than 5-10M in pocket money left over after everything implodes.
    - Tade0 2y ago
      Why bother when you can just have real estate instead? I'm likely missing something here, but to me this minimises the problem to just a reduction in the number of properties you can move into (assuming some are lost and some of the others sold).
      - sneak 2y ago
        Title to real estate, as well as its ability to be liquidated, rests wholly in the cooperation of the state, as well as their recognition of your legitimate title to same. I’m reminded of the end of Godfather 2. 10-20kg of gold coins buried at gps coordinates in the deep desert has no such limitations. I think a lot of ultrawealthy who have experience playing the geopolitical game probably must have some hedges like this. Doesn’t Thiel have NZ citizenship without any explicit intention of residing there? It’s not like value stored like this loses its utility even if the state doesn’t collapse/confiscate your assets/persecute you. I can’t imagine circumstances where one would end up being a billionaire then ever being a not-millionaire unless you’re thick as a brick.
    - WalterBright 2y ago
      [flagged]
    - nordsieck 2y ago
      > I refuse to think any sufficiently clever billionaire doesn’t have $1-10M in gold buried in a couple geographically distributed places. Maybe you don't remember this, but Elon wasn't a Billionaire with his exit from Paypal. He made his bones with Tesla/SpaceX (honestly, mostly Tesla, but we'll see how SpaceX turns out, it could be bigger in the end).
  - deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
  - hi-v-rocknroll 2y ago
    It's probably no coincidence that Bill Gates was also. Bet the farm 2-3x at least.