In an attempt to net $350,000 of NASA's money as winner of the 2007 Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge, Armadillo Aerospace - headed by John Carmack, creator of the Doom video game - created a lunar lander dubbed Module 1.The lander proved successful in the first half of the challenge, but upon attempting the second half the engine developed a crack. The resulting fuel leak caused the lander to run out of fuel completely and plummet to the ground 7 seconds short of the required flight time.
After an engine replacement, the lander barely left the ground for the second stage of the flight before the replacement engine also cracked. In one last attempt the team attached a more powerful engine from a rocket they called Pixel. Bad idea. The more powerful engine exploded on the launch pad, causing a large fireball and a loud bang that could be heard more than a kilometre away.
