spacetoday.net: Lander prototype crashes in KSC test

Posted: Fri, Aug 10, 2012, 6:32 AM ET (1032 GMT)
Morpheus lander crash at KSC (NASA/KSC)

A NASA vehicle designed to test lander technologies for future exploration missions crashed during its first free-flight test Thursday at the Kennedy Space Center. The Morpheus lander suffered a hardware failure in its guidance, navigation, and control system less than a second after lifting off from a pad near the Shuttle Landing Facility at KSC. This failure caused Morpheus to tip over and crash, causing a fire and explosion that destroyed the vehicle. No one was injured in the accident. Morpheus had previously flown a number of tethered tests at both KSC and the Johnson Space Center, where NASA developed the vehicle. NASA planned to use Morpheus, a vertical takeoff and landing vehicle originally developed by Armadillo Aerospace, to test various technologies that could be used on later spacecraft landing on the Moon or other solar system bodies.