SpaceX seems determined to develop a vertical takeoff and landing space rocket system, just like the ones in the old science fiction stories and movies.
In its latest test, just up the road from the rancho (note the ubiquitous Texas water tower), their Grasshopper rose to 80 meters on a tail of chemical flame, hovered for about 30 seconds, and then made a safe controlled landing. The controlled landing is the important part.
Here’s their good video of the event, set to the tune of an old Johnny Cash favorite. Note the cowboy-hatted figure on the base of the rocket, before the launch and after the landing, meant to represent Cash. Fire-proof, no doubt. Faster, please.
THE TEXAS SCRIBBLER 
Great news. The wave of the future, but then I suppose it has to be, considering that Obama can’t dismantle our space program fast enough. Someone has to stand up to the Chinese in the meantime.
I hope the Grasshopper is the wave of the future, if for no other than romantic reasons. I always liked the fictional rockets landing on their tail fins. I should followup this post with something I read (but can’t find at the moment) that single-stage-to-orbit like this is not efficient.
Space X’s Falcon Heavy rocket, with strap-on boosters, two- and perhaps three-stages to orbit, and ocean splashdown return, is very efficient. Its engines have been tested (right up the road from Austin outside tiny McGregor, where this Grasshopper hopped) but it has yet to fly. It would carry more than twice the payload of any existing Chinese rocket.
Obama’s actions on NASA are about the only thing he’s done that I like. Space belongs in private hands not government ones. NASA is bloated with bureaucrats and has so many regulations it can’t do anything cheaply. At the moment it’s pushing global warming like mad. Space X and similar companies are the future. Until and unless it’s determined that nobody can make money from space. Which doesn’t seem likely but some sci-fi writers have so forecast.
Yep. Good people, and more power to them. And as for NASA – they should do more fundamental science, although they are able of some pretty impressive engineering feats, as the Curiosity abundantly proved.