As promised, Masten Space System’s Xombie campaign continued throughout March, culminating with the vertical take off vertical landing vessel’s highest and longest flight yet. The vessel rose 500 meters – higher than the Empire State Building – and moved 300 meters laterally before appearing to plunge towards the ground. Xombie made a pinpoint landing at a second landing pad, guided by Draper Lab’s GENIE navigation and control system.
Watch Xombie’s flight below:
















































































































![A trajectory analysis that used a computational fluid dynamics approach to determine the likely position and velocity histories of the foam (Credits: NASA Ref [1] p61).](http://www.spacesafetymagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/fluid-dynamics-trajectory-analysis-50x50.jpg)



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