SpaceX CEO Elon Musk mocked Russia's new experimental launch vehicle called the Grasshopper, saying it "looks familiar" to the company's Falcon 9 rocket.
What Happened: "Look familiar," Musk said in a post on social media platform X about the vehicle resembling SpaceX's Falcon 9 launch vehicle.
"It's way too small though. Needs to be at least twice the size," Musk wrote about the Grasshopper in another post. Falcon 9 is nearly 230 feet tall.
The Grasshopper is a prototype of Russia's Amur rocket slated for its first launch no earlier than 2030, according to a report from Ars Technica. The preparation of the Grasshoper will start next year, the report said, citing Russian state-owned news agency TASS.
Plans for the Amur rocket were unveiled in 2020. It is intended to have a reusable first stage and methane-fueled engines enabling it to land back on Earth post-launch like SpaceX's Falcon 9.
Why It Matters: Falcon 9 is currently SpaceX's workhorse. The company completed its 400th successful Falcon launch with its Falcon 9 rocket launching a Dragon spacecraft to the International Space Station with supplies last week.
"Strange that no one has copied SpaceX after all this time," Musk then said in an X post about the company's efforts towards reusing the Falcon vehicle's boosters in a bid to bring down the cost of spaceflight.
Space VP of Launch Kiko Dontchev then also said that the company will not make its goal of 144 launches this year but is still targeting 30 more launches for the remaining year.
For the entirety of 2023, SpaceX only completed 96 launches, not including two test flights of the company's Starship launch vehicle which is in the testing and development phase.
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