The Grasshopper Can Fly Sideways 127
Phoghat writes "I'm of a 'certain age' and as a child grew up watching shows like "Rocky Jones, Space Ranger and others popular at the dawn of the space age. They always showed rocket ships sitting on their tails and blasting off, and landing, straight up. The shuttle went up that way but had to land like a plane, and anything else was considered impossible or impractical. Now, the Space X's rocket Grasshopper can not only do that, but has demonstrated sideways flight also."
Actually not a dupe! (Score:3, Insightful)
I almost called dupe from SpaceX Grasshopper Launch Filmed From Drone Helicopter [slashdot.org] but this is new stuff.
Watching the video (Score:2, Insightful)
Diverts like this are an important part of the trajectory in order to land the rocket precisely back at the launch site after re-entering from space at hypersonic velocity."
While watching the video, I just imagined the "gas" gauge needle sinking fast to 'E'.
Having to carry all the extra fuel to land like that is going to drastically reduce the payload.
That's why space missions usually land some other way - parachute, blow up balls, crash land, etc ... more room for equipment.
Re:Impossible my ass! (Score:5, Insightful)
bad comparison. the LM actually operated in reverse. it landed at a site, then took off. that is very different from taking off and then landing back at that exact same site. furthermore, the part that took off was a totally seperate piece with its own rocket engine, so technically it was two craft (or two stages) performing two seperate operations, not one craft performing both. the grasshopper is also far far larger than the LM, and exercising greater degree of control and precision in a heaver gravity and different atmosphere.
and while you alude to the crew capsules landing without fuel, the current crop of LAUNCHERS in use, are disposable single use entities, which means you apparently missed the entire point of this experimental rocket is to validate the concept of a reusable launcher, which would dramatically reduce costs.
short version: shutup
Re:Actually not a dupe! (Score:5, Insightful)
The way I see it, it's not so much that they can launch a vehicle vertically and then move it horizontally. The impressive part is that they do it with an actual rocket that is 106 feet tall, and that they have launched it 7 times with 0 failures. And this is all in prelude to their 9-engine 160-foot tall rocket that they will test at altitudes of up to 300,000 feet. When you have that working in your backyard, you let us know and we'll be happy to pat you on the back. Or, if you're as competent at designing rocket control systems as you seem to think, go ahead and work for them. I'm sure Elon Musk pays his people well.