Xombie Rocket Passes NASA Landing Test

Okay, wrong type of "zombie," but still interesting.

On Feb. 2, Masten Space Systems' Xombie rocket rose 164 feet (50 meters) off a launch pad in the California desert, moved sideways the same distance, and then landed softly on another pad. The entire flight lasted just 67 seconds.

The brief test flight demonstrated a new control system called the Guidance Embedded Navigator Integration Environment (GENIE), which was developed by the nonprofit Draper Laboratory in Cambridge, Mass. NASA's Flight Opportunities Program sponsored the recent flight, in the hopes that GENIE will enable more ambitious landing demonstrations in the future.

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Masten is developing a variety of reusable, unmanned vertical-takeoff and –landing vehicles for suborbital spaceflight. The company also hopes to build robotic spaceships for orbital missions eventually.