It's a prototype of the lower half of a larger rocket, and it's not intended to fly very high or fast, so it doesn't need a nice nose-cone. The single rocket en

It's a prototype of the lower half of a larger rocket, and it's not intended to fly very high or fast, so it doesn't need a nice nose-cone. The single rocket engine is mounted in the center, and it gimbals to the side to make the rocket move sideways. The on-board computer is balancing the whole rocket on that flame the whole time, adjusting it continuously to keep everything in balance and the rocket moving towards the landing zone; imagine balancing a pencil on your fingertip. The real rocket will have a lot more than just one engine, but for this test they only needed the one.