SpaceX’s Grasshopper rocket has made another successful flight reaching an altitude of 744 meters before gently touching back down on its launch pad.
SpaceX’s next move will be to retire the current Grasshopper craft and build another at New Mexico’s Spaceport America, where the company will continue developing a reusable rocket that can ferry cargo into orbit.
According to SpaceX the new Grasshopper v1.1 testbed will be made from a Falcon 9 first stage tank and will be powered by a 9 Merlin 1D engines, each capable of 801 kN of thrust. With all of that lifting power SpaceX’s founder Elon Musk expect the company’s New Mexico tests to push the Grashopper v1.1 to altitudes around 90km (55mi) at supersonic speeds. Ever the ambitious pioneer Musk believes the next gen Grasshopper could reach hypersonic velocities by the end of 2013.
Image and Video Courtesy of SpaceX