It’s a rocketship made the way that God and Bob Heinlein intended:
Takes off on a jet of fire, lands on a pillar of fire. Only went up just under 2,441 feet this time, but that’s why they make prototypes.
Via
Wow, almost looks like animation. Great tet. RT: @NASAWatch SpaceX Grasshopper Video: Now THAT is a Rocketship http://t.co/Evr2wdOJRj
— Alan Ladwig (@SpaceArtAl) October 13, 2013
*Vertical Takeoff, Vertical Landing. Had to look it up, myself.
I want my spaceships with big ol’ fins on ’em.
Cool video, but what’s the advantage of that method of landing? I can’t imagine it would have enough fuel to take off again plus, it burned a lot of fuel controlling the descent.
So you slap a refueling hose on it, top off the tanks, do the preflight checklist, and take off again. The eventual goal is a fully reusable spacecraft that doesn’t take months of time in order to prep for the next flight.