Editing Armadillo Aerospace (section)

==Staff and funding==
Armadillo was headed, and largely funded, by [[John D. Carmack|John Carmack]], a developer of [[video game]]s including the ''[[Doom (series)|Doom]]'' and ''[[Quake (series)|Quake series]]''. During its early days, all of its employees (including Carmack) had other, full-time jobs and contributed their efforts twice weekly to Armadillo on a voluntary basis. Armadillo had a relatively small budget and was not supported by aerospace companies or agencies like [[NASA]], [[European Space Agency|ESA]], or [[Boeing]]. Armadillo Aerospace publicly declared itself fully self-funded.{{when|date=March 2015}}<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.armadilloaerospace.com/n.x/Armadillo/Home/Business/Investment |title=Investment |access-date=2004-05-20 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040625103908/http://armadilloaerospace.com/n.x/Armadillo/Home/Business/Investment |archive-date=June 25, 2004 |df=mdy }}</ref>

In February 2006, Carmack stated that the program to date had cost slightly over $2 million.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.hobbyspace.com/nucleus/index.php?itemid=1026|title=RLV and Space Transport News » Alt.space spending<!-- Bot generated title -->|access-date=August 11, 2017|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120524192303/http://hobbyspace.com/nucleus/index.php?itemid=1026|archive-date=May 24, 2012|df=mdy-all}}</ref> Even by the standards of X-Prize candidates, this is a low budget. [[Scaled Composites]] is estimated to have spent $25 million on its [[SpaceShipOne]] development program.

On August 8, 2006, Armadillo Aerospace announced that it had reached a sponsorship deal with [[Nvidia]]. While details were sparse, John Carmack said, "There is a chance at this point that I may have written the last personal cheque I need to for Armadillo."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.armadilloaerospace.com/n.x/Armadillo/Home/News?news_id=331 |title=NVIDIA Sponsorship|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060822211037/http://www.armadilloaerospace.com/n.x/Armadillo/Home/News?news_id=331 |archive-date=August 22, 2006|date=August 7, 2006}}</ref>

In April 2008, Carmack offered an updated figure of "total cost to date, about $3.5 million." He estimated that another $2 million would be needed to achieve a crewed flight to 100&nbsp;km using Armadillo's modular design in a "six-pack" configuration.<ref>[http://armadilloaerospace.com/n.x/Armadillo/Home/News?news_id=357 Armadillo Aerospace - News Archive] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080411015830/http://armadilloaerospace.com/n.x/Armadillo/Home/News?news_id=357 |date=April 11, 2008 }}</ref>

By 2010, Armadillo had 7 full-time employees and was profitable on ongoing operations (though Carmack was continuing to invest in development efforts).<ref>[http://www.armadilloaerospace.com/n.x/Armadillo/Home/News?news_id=371 Armadillo Aerospace - News Archive August 10, 2010] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101212002650/http://armadilloaerospace.com/n.x/Armadillo/Home/News?news_id=371 |date=December 12, 2010 }}</ref>

The company mascot was an [[armadillo]] named Widget.

===2013 "Hibernation mode" and sale of assets===
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." Armadillo had stopped accepting (profitable) contract [[research and development|R&D]] work two years prior in order to focus on development of a suborbital reusable rocket. During those two years, Armadillo operated at an approximately US$1 million per year [[burn rate]] funded personally by Carmack. Several reasons were offered for this outcome, including a failure to adopt a multi-test-vehicle build strategy, making the loss of a single rocket more significant than it would have otherwise been.<ref name="nsj20130801">{{cite news |last=Foust|first=Jeff |title=Carmack: Armadillo Aerospace in "hibernation mode" |url=http://www.newspacejournal.com/2013/08/01/carmack-armadillo-aerospace-in-hibernation-mode/ |access-date=August 6, 2013 |newspaper=NewSpace Journal |date=August 1, 2013 }}</ref>

{{asof|2013|08}}, Carmack was "actively looking for outside investors to restart work on the company’s rockets."<ref name=nsj20130801/>

In 2015, the assets of Armadillo Aerospace were sold to [[Exos Aerospace|EXOS Aerospace Systems & Technologies, Inc.]]<ref name='exos' />