Early Sunday morning, Armadillo Aerospace has again showed its rocket muscle - flying the first part of a two-part pad to pad hop here at the X Prize Cup.

“It looks good” cried a voice over the loud speakers as the multi-legged craft roared through the sky.

Jumping off its starting launch pad, the craft edged its way through the sky, hovered over another landing spot - then lowered down to touchdown.

Armadillo is now recycling their vehicle for the return-leg, and if successful, snag $350,000 in a Level One part of the Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge.

Yesterday, Armadillo also few the first leg of the Level One flight - but failed to achieve a second touchdown.

John Herrington of Rocketplane XP — a judge for the competition — said all looked well in today’s flight. Yesterday, he explained, they had a hard start that cracked the vehicle’s motor. That problem caused a thrust vectoring problem, causing the craft to go into a soft abort. And that step led to a hard abort, with the vehicle coming down and falling over.

Overnight, the engine was replaced and some related hardware. “Look what they’ve done,” Herrington noted. “This is great!”

The early morning flight was a surprise to many - while the gates are open here for the Air and Space Expo - there was very little public audience.