THE FUTURE IS IN TEXAS: SpaceX’s Grasshopper to Be Latest Rocket to Fly in the Skies of Texas. “SpaceX, the commercial space company that is a participant in President Barack Obama’s commercial crew program, has acquired an experimental permit to test fly a vertical take off and landing rocket called the Grasshopper at its McGregor, Texas, test site. The Grasshopper will consist of a Falcon 9 stage 1 fuel tank, a single Merlin-1D engine, four steel landing legs, and a steel support structure. The spacecraft will burn a refined kerosene fuel with liquid oxygen for 122,000 pounds of thrust. The spacecraft’s height will be 106 feet, with the fuel tank being 85 feet in height. . . . Texas seems to be becoming a center for a new vertical take-off and landing spacecraft industry.”