SpaceX Completes Flight Test for Grasshopper Rocket
Space Exploration Technologies Inc. has completed the latest test flight for its Grasshopper autonomous vertical-takeoff and landing rocket.
The Grasshopper flew 263 feet, hovered for 34 seconds and landed using a closed-loop guidance system, Wired.com reported Monday.
Jason Par writes that the latest of Space X’s four test flights exceeded the recorded altitudes of previous demonstrations and had “the most accurate landing to date.”
The test vehicle uses components from the first-stage tank from a Falcon 9 and Merline 1D rocket engine, the same kind that propelled SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft onto the International Space Station on March 1.
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