Private space-flight company SpaceX's reusable rocket Grasshopper earlier this week showed its capability of performing more aggressive steering maneuvers than what is had demonstrated in previous flights.

The rocket on Tuesday flew to a height of 250 meters (nearly 820 feet) and made a 100-meter lateral maneuver before returning to its launch pad.

A spokesperson for SpaceX said, "Diverts like this are an important part of the trajectory in order to land the rocket precisely back at the launch site after re-entering from space at hypersonic velocity."

It may be noted here that Grasshopper is more than 10 stories in height, and thus handling it during a divert test is a big challenge.

In March, the rocket had successfully completed a task of leaping to around 80.1 meters high and hovering for around 34 seconds, and then returning safely to the centre of its launch pad.

Co-founded by PayPal and Tesla co-founder Elon Musk, SpaceX is making efforts to introduce a new launch system built around entirely reusable rocket vehicles. The project aims at making flights to space cheaper as well as more efficient than existing systems.