For those of you who haven't seen it, here is SpaceX's fantastic animation of their ultimate goal for Falcon 9 (complete with soundtrack by Muse):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWFFiubtC3c

This will give you an idea of how grasshopper fits into the full flight plan.

I can't even begin to describe how psyched I get when I see demos like this. The advances that SpaceX and their competitors are making in terms of making access to space cheaper are what will eventually lead to the human species settling on other planets.

It also reminds me that when it comes to science, and who knows, maybe other things as well, it's not just public sector vs private sector. SpaceX wouldn't be driving us forward like this if NASA hadn't put in a whole heap of groundwork first, but similarly NASA have other goals to worry about besides keeping costs down. It's that combination of NASA's huge ambition and private enterprise's drive to make efficiency savings that will eventually get us colonizing places that aren't the Earth.

I hope it happens in my life time,

"Unfortunately, this video is not available in Germany because it may contain music for which GEMA has not granted the respective music rights."

Here's a short link to bypass: http://www.ssyoutube.com/watch?v=sWFFiubtC3c

This is probably a good place to point out: The SpaceX flight software team is looking for skilled software engineers! There are openings from anything from front-end RoR stuff to flight software and simulations infrastructure. If you want to help making stuff like this video run, check out some of these:

https://jobs.github.com/positions/bd54ba2a-a930-11e2-9c0e-5c...

http://www.spacex.com/careers.php?jvi=oarEWfwV,Job

http://www.spacex.com/careers.php?jvi=odfMWfwU,Job

Can someone share some details on how the rocket is stabilized? There are a few different ways to do it -- how does this one work?

Its likely that full-fledged Space Travel with reusable rockets will be possible in the coming years

Anyone have experience working at, or with, SpaceX that can shed some light on what it's like to work there?

Are that engines reusable in a short time? or must they go through a mayor refurbishment after each flight?

That aerial shot they have in the video is pretty neat... I wonder if they are using a UAV for that, or just some ballsy helicopter pilot?

Haven't heard much from Armadillo Aerospace in a while. Are they still active?

Can't watch this in Germany of course.

I watched the videos (no sound - at work) and it seems like from the discussion that they are thinking of returning to the launch site. I looked at the Saturn V data and the first stage came down 350 miles down range and the second stage 2300 or so miles down range. Are the SpaceX launches going to have little downrange component for the first stage?

Would have loved to see what happened to the dummy cowboy. The final fews frames are not very clear due to the smoke and dust.

So what's the big water tower for in the background?

A flying Segway! How cool is that?

Poor bird gets killed in the video as it tries to fly away as the rocket takes off

The saddest part is that I would have been willing to capitalize SpaceX voluntarily, as an investor. Instead, Elon Musk steals from me through NASA.