SpaceX’s test vertical-landing rocket Grasshopper successfully climbed to 250 meters in its most recent test flight.
The competition heats up: SpaceX’s test vertical-landing rocket Grasshopper successfully climbed to 250 meters in its most recent test flight.
Video below the fold.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
The competition heats up: SpaceX’s test vertical-landing rocket Grasshopper successfully climbed to 250 meters in its most recent test flight.
Video below the fold.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
So cool. Where is NASA’s version?
1. Replace spindly landing legs with V-2-style fins
2. Add swept wings
3. Paint with red-and-white checkerboard pattern
4. ???
5. PROFIT!
Definitely looks like they may be able to make this idea work. I was particularly impressed with its ability to just hover nearly motionless before descending back to the pad…
Canceled.
Right out of my 50″s movie introduction to space travel. Back in “the old days” we never considered multistage vehicles or splashdowns in the ocean. Back then you could just hop in a rocket, blast off, and go to mars – have lunch – and return all in the same V2 shaped machine. Life was so much simpler when I was 10.
Have they been able to match the DC-X’s performance from back in the 90’s?
That would require them to blow off a panel in flight, then land successfully. “Oh god, oh god, we’re all going to die.”
Link to a video of the DC-X
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wv9n9Casp1o
Isn’t this supposed to be a prototype of a first and second stage rocket recovery plan?
If this works they can use parachutes to slow down a falling first or second stage and then use the lift engines and a little left over fuel to land the rockets intact?