SpaceX’s Grasshopper rocket broke a new height record in a recent test flight last week and then returned to its launch pad ground in near-perfect landing form. It’s the second part that excites its engineers the most, since the rocket’s unique selling point is its reusability.
The test flight took place on Monday, October 7, in McGregor, Texas, and was captured in a video that the company posted to its YouTube channel. The video shows the rocket lifting 744 meters straight into the air and then falling back along the exact same trajectory it had come and touching down onto the launch pad.
An aerial drone “hexacopter” took the video of the flight test, which ran for about a minute and a half form launch to return, while hovering in the air nearby.
SpaceX has test-launched the Grasshopper previously in September, November, and December of 2012, followed by more test flights in March, April, and June of this year. Its flight trajectory steadily rose each time around, from 2.5 meters in the September flight to 80 meters in December, and finally, this month’s record high.
The long-term goal is a rocket that can fly into space and back, and do so multiple times. Conventional rockets, such as those that lifted NASA’s space shuttles into orbit, are only good for one-time use as the atmosphere reentry burns them up beyond the point of salvaging. They fall into the ocean and are never seen again.
Grasshopper has a long way to go, but its continuous improvements suggest that it is making headway. It would be a vastly more cost-effective space-shuttle substitute if it reaches its space-bound goal. The landing vehicle component, which extends 10 stories, is ample enough to carry a small payload.
In its current test flights, the landing vehicle stands atop a first-stage booster of the Falcon 9 rocket, the same rocket that SpaceX has used to launch another of its vehicles, the Dragon, to the International Space Station on multiple supply missions. In addition to this rocket tank, the vehicle is decked out with a Merlin 1D engine, four landing legs made of steel and aluminum with hydraulic dampers at their ends, and a steel support structure. Once it is ready for space flights, SpaceX will continue to pair it up with Falcon 9 rocket launchers and designate it as the Falcon 9’s reusable launch vehicle.
The company has a contract with NASA to fly 12 supply missions to the International Space Station from 2012 on. It fulfilled two of those missions already and has the next one coming up in early 2014.
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