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SpaceX's grasshopper is already pretty freaky, a rocket able to take off, hover and land
totally on its own, but it just got even cooler.
Because not content with hovering a ten storey tower full of explosives several hundred feet
off the ground, Elon musk's rocket company has now showcased the fact that they can make
it 'shuffle' across, or 'divert' in proper words, by tilting to a 30-ish degree angle
and back.
Now the mathematics involved in doing this, and the engineering skill required, are absolutely
insane. There's simply no other word for it, because it might look like a dodgy 50s sci-fi
movie but this rocket is probably one of the most complicated pieces of engineering ever
contemplated. And it's working.
The eventual aim of the rocket is to develop a fully reusable system that can take off
and land vertically and in one piece, which would make getting into space a heck of a
lot cheaper.
For the moment though, it's just unbelievably cool.
If you enjoyed this video and why wouldn't you, it's got sideways rockets then check
out some of the other awesome content that Truthloader's been working on. We've done
a bit of work on space and you'll find it to my side right now.