Grasshopper flies again—but what about the next Falcon 9 launch? | NewSpace Journal

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Grasshopper, the reusable launch vehicle (RLV) technology demonstrator developed by SpaceX, has made another hop. SpaceX released late Friday a video (above) of a June 14 flight by Grasshopper at the company’s test site near McGregor, Texas. Grasshopper flew to an altitude of 325 meters before landing. The video provides a unique point of view for the flight: a camera mounted on a “hexacopter” drone hovering nearby at around the peak altitude achieved by the Grasshopper.

 

A key element of this flight, SpaceX noted in the video’s description on YouTube, is the vehicle used “its full navigation sensor suite with the F9-R closed loop control flight algorithms to accomplish a precision landing.” This flight used a higher accuracy sensor that enabled a precision landing.

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