Private space exploration company SpaceX has reached another milestone, this time sending its Grasshopper reusable rocket over 1,000 feet into the air and returning it safely to the ground.

Founded by PayPal and Tesla wunderkind Elon Musk, SpaceX has already won a contract to carry supplies to the International Space Station and has successfully completed several runs using other, more traditional rockets.

Typically, large booster rockets store and burn huge amounts of fuel to get a payload into orbit, then detach and fall into the ocean. This is both expensive and potentially hazardous to the environment. If SpaceX can perfect reusable rockets, space agencies (and eventually private space transportation companies) will be able to save money, labor and supplies.

It would also be the first step toward spacefaring vehicles that can take off inside an atmosphere, travel into orbit or through space, and land again, a concept currently relegated to science fiction.

SpaceX seems to be making steady strides toward its goal. Last year the company celebrated a Grasshopper launch and return that only reached a tenth the height of this most recent attempt, which was actually completed in June, though the video only surfaced this week.

While 1,000 feet is a far cry from orbit, it's higher than most of the biosphere. That's higher than the TransAmerica building on San Francisco or the Chrysler building in New York. If the height of these "jumps" continues to increase at this rate, the next leap will likely top the highest manmade structures in the world.