In this video, a hexacopter captures video footage of the SpaceX Grasshopper as it reaches 325 meters (1066 feet)–higher than Manhattan’s Chrysler Building–before smoothly landing back on the pad.
Part of a program that intends to test how rockets could return to Earth intact for a vertical landing on the launch pad instead of burning up in the atmosphere, Grasshopper is a 10-story Vertical Takeoff Vertical Landing (VTVL) vehicle.
Its steel structure contains a Falcon 9 rocket first stage tank and Merlin 1D engine as well as four steel and aluminum landing legs with hydraulic dampers.