“Up a bit, up a bit, left a bit, left a bit. Down a bit. OK. There.” No, not the sound of piano removal men, but what I imagine the controllers of team Armadillo’s lunar lander said as they competed victoriously in the weekend’s Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge in Las Cruces, New Mexico.

The competition is a two-tier affair, and the prize purse is a whopping £2 million, although Armadillo Aerospace only took home $350,000. To get this, they had to build a rocket-powered vehicle that would take off, fly 50 metres high, travel to the side for 100 metres, taking at least 90 seconds, then touch down safely. And then go back again.

Level two of the competition is to do this on a rocky, Moon-like surface. Last year Armadillo came a tantalising 7 seconds away from completing the challenge and this year they also failed.

These space prizes pick up a lot of attention in the traditional geek-press (Wired, Space.com, Discover) and elsewhere (MSNBC) despite the historically low levels of success the competition is used to. The prize money has remained safe in the hands of NASA since the competition began in 2006. This year nine teams took part, but Armadillo were the only successful entrant, in either category.

Speaking of geek press, Gizmodo has another Armadillo-related story, with an artist’s impression of their next project – a goldfish bowl space ship. Wow!

Image: courtesy of Armadillo Aerospace