SpaceX's 10-Story Re-useable Grasshopper Rocket Takes a Bigger Hop

By Nancy Atkinson - November 4, 2012 at 11:16 PM UTC | Space Exploration
grasshopper.jpg

SpaceX is developing the "Grasshopper" reusable vertical takeoff, vertical landing rocket. Back in September, the 32-meter- (106-ft-) tall Grasshopper made a tiny hop – barely lifting off the pad just to test-fire its engines. But now the Grasshopper has made a second, bigger hop. Over the weekend,

Elon Musk

quietly tweeted a link to a video, saying, "First flight of 10 story tall Grasshopper rocket using closed loop thrust vector & throttle control."

Update:

SpaceX later confirmed that the Grasshopper rose "17.7 feet (5.4 meters), hovered, and touched back down safely on the pad at SpaceX's rocket development facility in McGregor, Texas."

SpaceX hasn't talked much about this rocket, but reportedly the goal with Grasshopper is to eventually create a reusable first stage for its Falcon 9 rocket, which would be able to land safely instead of falling back into the ocean and not being usable again.

Artist's rendering of SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket landing itself. Credit: SpaceX

Here's some info about the Grasshopper from a

draft environmental impact assessment

put out by the FAA in 2011:

The Grasshopper RLV consists of a Falcon 9 Stage 1 tank, a Merlin-1D engine, four steel landing legs, and a steel support structure. Carbon overwrapped pressure vessels (COPVs), which are filled with either nitrogen or helium, are attached to the support structure. The Merlin-1D engine has a maximum thrust of 122,000 pounds. The overall height of the Grasshopper RLV is 106 feet, and the tank height is 85 feet.

The propellants used in the Grasshopper RLV include a highly refined kerosene fuel, called RP-1, and liquid oxygen (LOX) as the oxidizer.

The reports goes on to say that the Grasshopper test program is to have three phases of test launches, at SpaceX's facility in McGregor, Texas. Phases 1 and 2 would consist of very low test fires with the rocket rising to not more than 73 meters (240 feet) during Phase 1 and 204 meters (670 feet), which is below controlled-airspace. Both Phase 1 and 2 flights would last up to 45 seconds.

Phase 3 tests have the goal of increasingly higher altitudes with higher ascent speeds and descent speeds. The altitude test sequence likely would be 366 meters (1,200 feet); 762 meters (2,500 feet); 1,524 meters (5,000 feet); 2,286 meters (7,500 feet); and 3,505 meters (11,500) feet. The maximum test duration would be approximately 160 seconds. If all goes well, the Grasshopper would land back on the launch pad.

Here's Grasshopper's first little test hop in September, which SpaceX said went 2 meters (6 feet):

Look for more details on this exciting reusable rocket as SpaceX continues its tests of the Grasshopper.

Sources:

Twitter,

Parabolic Arc

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson is a space journalist and author with a passion for telling the stories of people involved in space exploration and astronomy. She is currently retired from daily writing, but worked at Universe Today for 20 years as a writer and editor. She also contributed articles to The Planetary Society, Ad Astra (National Space Society), New Scientist and many other online outlets.

Her 2019 book, "Eight Years to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Missions,” shares the untold stories of engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make the Apollo program so successful, despite the daunting odds against it. Her first book “Incredible Stories From Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos” (2016) tells the stories of 37 scientists and engineers that work on several current NASA robotic missions to explore the solar system and beyond.

Nancy is also a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador, and through this program, she has the opportunity to share her passion of space and astronomy with children and adults through presentations and programs. Nancy's personal website is nancyatkinson.com