NASA's Commercial Reusable Suborbital Research Program (CRuSR) has awarded a total of approximately $475,000 to Armadillo Aerospace of Rockwall, Texas and Masten Space Systems of Mojave, Calif.

NASA will award $1.65 million in prize money Thursday to a pair of innovative aerospace companies that successfully simulated landing a spacecraft on the moon and lifting off again.

Just days after NASA ran a test launch of its spiffy new Ares I-X rocket at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, a small but devout band of creative space geeks have been trying their hand at rocket science in the middle of the Mojave Desert.

WASHINGTON, Dec. 1 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- NASA will recognize Armadillo Aerospace, the winner of the 2008 Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge, during a ceremony at 10 a.m. on Dec. 5 at NASA Headquarters, 300 E Street, SW, Washington.

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