The Grasshopper flew 40 meters straight up before coming back down to Earth

Dec 27, 2012 22:31 GMT  ·  By

SpaceX's main projects are going quite well, the ISS resupply missions have been going great so far, Falcon 9 is well on its way and so on. But this is not a company to sit on its laurels, it's also working on longer term projects, like the reusable Grasshopper rocket.

The rocket completed a new test recently and flew for about 29 seconds to a height of more than 40 meters, 130 feet before coming back down to Earth. The previous highest jump was 10 meters.

The SpaceX Grasshopper is an experimental rocket which, when ready, will be capable of vertical takeoff and landing, making it a fully reusable launch system.

The Shuttle, the most famous reusable spacecraft discarded the fuel tank on each launch. The Grasshopper, when ready, should be able to go supersonic while pushing a payload on its way into orbit and then land back on Earth safely on its own.