Video: SpaceX's Reusable Grasshopper Rocket Completes 325 Meter Test

Posted on July 8, 2013

SpaceX's reusable Grasshopper rocket successfully completed a 325 meter (1066 feet) test last month. The flight was conducted on June 14, but the video of the flight was only recently uploaded to YouTube. Grasshopper is a 10-story Vertical Takeoff Vertical Landing (VTVL) vehicle designed to test the technologies needed to return a rocket back to Earth intact. Most rockets are designed to burn up in the Earth's atmosphere on reentry.

SpaceX says the rocket made use of its ts full navigation sensor suite with the F9-R closed loop control flight algorithms for this flight to accomplish a precision landing. Take a look:

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