Grasshopper Rocket by SpaceX

choi

(1) Douglas Quenqua, The Week. New York Times, Aug 20, 2013 (in Science Times section).
("In its [SpaceX's] latest test run [on Aug 15, 2013] a 10-story rocket known as the grasshopper lifted off and briefly flew sideways, then landed smoothly on the spot from which it [rocket] came, remaining upright throughout. SpaceX is still a long way from producing a practical reusable rocket, but the one-minute flight represented a significant step forward, and made for the week's coolest science video.

My comment:
(a) The clip in SpaceX is shot from the sky, above the rocket. It is hard for me to tell a sideway hop.
(b) However, another angle, from the earth and horizontal, can tell there were two sideway hops: one at the beginning of the launch (to the right), and the other at the beginning of descent (to the left).

Richard Grey, SpaceX Grasshopper Rocket Makes Sideways Leap. Telegraph, Aug 16, 2013 (video clip).
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/scien ... -sideways-leap.html

choi

(2) The home page of
http://www.spacex.com/

shows, among other photos, crowds observing the test flight just outside control center, where each of technologists had a desk with three PCs--as if it were in Wall Street.

Go to the bottom of the home page to click the icon "REUSABILITY: THE KEY TO MAKING HUMAN LIFE MULTI-PLANETARY"--to read more and watch a video clip of Grasshopper test flight.