First full launch for Grasshopper rocket - Telegraph.co.uk

The aircraft flew 325 metres (1066 feet) into the air - higher than Manhattan's Chrysler Building - before landing vertically back onto its launch pad. It was the first time the Grasshopper had made full use of its navigation sensor suite, which is accurate enough to carry out vertical precision landing allowing the rocket to land back to Earth intact. While most rockets are designed to burn up on atmosphere reentry, the 10-storey tall Grasshopper rocket is designed to withstand reentry into the Earth's atmosphere and to land back vertically onto its launch pad. The Grasshopper, which was designed by US company SpaceX, consists of a Falcon 9 rocket first stage tank, Merlin 1D engine, four steel and aluminum landing legs with hydraulic dampers, and a steel support structure. Footage courtesy of YouTube: Spacexchannel via Science - Google News http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&usg=AFQjCNG8gbXHLSSdn3LJU9ihGoewCRFBTw&url=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/space/10163963/First-full-launch-for-Grasshopper-rocket.html

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