Posted on 06/18/2025 11:35:55 AM PDT by Red Badger
The prototype vehicle soared to an altitude of nearly 889 feet (271 meters) at Honda’s facility in Taiki Town, Japan, on June 17.
Launch and landing test of experimental reusable rocket. - Honda
Honda’s name has long been tied to innovation on the ground, and it is famous for its powerful engines and automobiles.
However, the company is now shifting gears, setting its sights on the competitive space domain. The Tokyo-based company has already made a bold move.
In a surprising announcement yesterday, Honda R&D Co., Ltd. – the research arm of Honda Motor Company – revealed it successfully launched and landed its experimental reusable rocket.
“This test marked the first launch and landing test conducted by Honda with an aim to demonstrate key technologies essential for rocket reusability, such as flight stability during ascent and descent, as well as landing capability,” the company’s announcement stated.
Test being conducted in Taiki Town in Hokkaido, Japan. Honda
Experimental rocket test
Honda developed the experimental reusable rocket on its own. The spacecraft is 20.6 feet (6.3 meters) in length, 85 centimeters (33.4 inches) in diameter, and has a dry weight of 900 kg (1984 pounds).
The prototype vehicle soared to an altitude of nearly 889 feet (271 meters) at Honda’s facility in Taiki Town, Japan, on June 17.
And then, in a display of precision engineering, it landed with accuracy, within just 37 centimeters of its target. The entire flight lasted a swift 56.6 seconds, providing invaluable data for future development.
So, why is this so significant? Reusability is the holy grail of cost-effective, frequent space travel flights.
This successful test is a massive step towards Honda’s ambitious goal of achieving suborbital spaceflight by 2029. A suborbital launch reaches the edge of space but doesn’t achieve orbit.
Before this, the car maker giant aims to demonstrate mastery over key elements like flight stability during both ascent and descent, and pinpoint landing capability.
“Although Honda rocket research is still in the fundamental research phase, and no decisions have been made regarding commercialization of these rocket technologies,” the press statement noted.
“Honda will continue making progress in the fundamental research with a technology development goal of realizing technological capability to enable a suborbital launch by 2029.”
Reusable rocket race
This isn’t a sudden leap into the unknown for Honda. The company first hinted at reusable rocket plans in 2021, and late last year, they even established a Space Development Division in the U.S. to foster collaboration.
However, the company had kept its spaceflight developments under wraps for years.
Honda is not the only player in this burgeoning field. Reportedly, Japan’s government is aggressively promoting its space industry, aiming to double its size to over $55 billion by the early 2030s through active subsidies to private companies.
This has ignited a commercial space race, attracting other major automotive players like Toyota, which aims to boost the mass production of launch vehicles.
Over the past decade, reusable launch vehicles, most notably SpaceX’s Falcon 9, have completely transformed commercial space missions.
This trend has also spurred development among U.S. competitors like Blue Origin, and companies in China and Europe are also pursuing reusable rocket designs. China tested a SpaceX-inspired rocket last year in the Gobi Desert.
Earlier, Interesting Engineering reported that a Japanese company also announced the development of a “winged reusable rocket.”
Adding to this global momentum, Tokyo-based startup Innovative Space Carrier recently announced plans to test a prototype reusable rocket in the United States in December, utilizing an American engine.
Meanwhile, Honda’s Global CEO Toshihiro Mibe believes that the company’s rocket research is a meaningful endeavor that “leverages Honda’s technological strengths.”
“Honda has made another step forward in our research on reusable rockets with this successful completion of a launch and landing test,” he said.
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PING!......................
In first!
This makes them about 5 years behind SpaceX. Still, they’re ahead of anybody else in the world.
More SpaceX Wannabes
more like a pizza delivery vehicle than a payload.
Can they keep it on the runway? (arcane reference)
lol, you win 👍
Looks like a single person rocket... So you save $$$ going without a seat. Not sure though where you will put the human waste product that is sure to ensue after takeoff, unless it is being self contained within a pair of ‘depends’.
All in all... They’re going to need some more development before any commercial purpose can be achieved.
Wow!
Thank you. I earned it. My fat fingers kept hitting the wrong letters and autocorrect kept coming up with stupid suggestions. The struggle was real.
Two Factoids
If you are following Bob Zimmerman at https://behindtheblack.com, none of this is “news.” It is great.
Musk start SpaceX around the same time as Bezos “started” Blue Origin. The SpaceX Falcon 9 is a fully reusable system, with a lot less trouble than Boeing. Some of the Falcon 9 rockets have flown 28 times. Eventually there will be a fleet of Falcon 9s that fly 40 times. Even the European Space Agency (ESA) has used SpaceX.
The StarLink system now makes enough $$$ to fund the Starship SuperHeavy test regimen. Bezos/Amazon brag about their internet satellite system, but.......
PS - Bob Zimmerman / behind the black is as unwoke as they come. Real science.
My Estes ‘Scout’ went higher than that, carrying a white mouse.
My Big Bertha did too!...................
A real rice burning crotch rocket.
by comparison, a SpaceX rocket is around 250 ft Tall
I wanted the Saturn V but couldn’t afford it, or to feed it those four? C rocket engines.
The Honda A-Type, Honda's First Product on the Market - 1947.
Honda's Super Cub - and we're off to the races and eventually into space.
I admire Honda's winning spirit and winning record.
The ‘Long John’ an Army rocket and V2 were pretty cool.
Then there was the Chinese-Korean hybrid: the chinee ‘Long March’ mated to the Korean Dong Gao: the Long Dong.
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