The privately owned space exploration company known as SpaceX successfully launched a rocket in Texas and returned it to its launching pad, the company said.

To test the capabilities of a practical reusable rocket, the Space Exploration Technologies Corporation's "divert test" sent a Falcon 9 rocket, the height of a 10-story building and nicknamed "Grasshopper," 820 feet into the air Tuesday. It then veered sideways and demonstrated a variety of steering maneuvers before parking itself on the launch pad in central Texas where it started, The New York Times reported Friday.

A reusable rocket, instead of NASA's throwaway rockets, would make space travel less expensive, SpaceX said in a statement.