Honda pulls off surprise reusable rocket test launch
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rivaling their ... 8 year old technology
not a fan of musk but spacex seriously leapfrogged everyone in the 2010s
wrote on last edited by [email protected]Altitude of 300m …. This is older than 8 years, this corresponds to the first SpaceX tests …. I don’t see that level of historical detail, but Wikipedia lists a milestone of a recovered falcon 9 after launch to orbit. Hondas technology is somewhere over 15 years old …. And the article doesn’t say whether it’s comparable size or power, so no.
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Honda says growing expectations of a "data system in outer space" are going to increase the demand for rockets to launch satellites. So, the Japanese automaker quietly built one and tested it successfully.
Japan's second-largest carmaker, Honda, has successfully tested an experimental reusable space rocket on the nothern Japanese island of Hokkaido, the company said in a surprise announcement.
"The test was completed successfully, the first time Honda landed a rocket after reaching an altitude of nearly 300 meters (1,000 feet)," the company said in a statement on Tuesday.
The carmaker aims to achieve suborbital space flight in 2029. In 2021, Honda said it was studying space technologies such as reusable rockets but made no announcements prior to Tuesday's test
Put some v-tec in it and it might actually works better.
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That's how airplanes were at first too. Eventually, once enough of the technology and engineering becomes finalized, everyday people can afford it.
With this technology we can use methane or hydrogen powered rockets, using only renewable resources, launch people from one side of the planet to the other in less than an hour.
Is this a good thing for the environment? It's hard to say right now, it's probably not great. Since the flights will be so short, maybe it'll be better than the current air travel.
My original point was also that you'd need a real benefit compared to the currently available options. We did have faster air travel for a time with the Concorde (which looked a lot more like a spaceship than other aircrafts). It went away because it had a lot of downsides for only the advantage of being faster. Don't get me wrong, I would have loved to use it one day just to witness it; but in the end, it doesn't really matter if your trip takes slightly less time; keep in mind that it usually doesn't start and end at an airport anyways, and this problem would be even bigger for space travel. So it isn't really something for traveling on Earth. Which brings me back to the question what it would do for a layperson...
Apart from that, you need to time your departure and arrival with conditions on Earth, so while technically you could shorten that time drastically, you'd probably need to wait some months before you can take the trip.
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But the question is – why?
My honest belief is that somehow, spaceflight is good for the people in the US because it creates jobs:
Think of how the Space Race of the 1960s brought jobs all across America. On top of that, it inspired a generation of scientists.
Both are valuable for a society, especially for the US, where these kinds of jobs are especially desirable.
The problem in the US isn't lack of jobs, it's lack of pay, crippling debt and rising cost of living. People have trouble fitting all those jobs into their lives. Normal people are getting squeezed and social protections are weak. More jobs won't fix it
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Just wait until they add VTEC to it
I expect we’ll see SpaceX rockets with VTEC stickers trying to masquerade as performance rockets.
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rivaling their ... 8 year old technology
not a fan of musk but spacex seriously leapfrogged everyone in the 2010s
Down voted because you didnt immediately talk shit about someone. We all hate musk but it doesnt mean we have to claim it for every post.
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Altitude of 300m …. This is older than 8 years, this corresponds to the first SpaceX tests …. I don’t see that level of historical detail, but Wikipedia lists a milestone of a recovered falcon 9 after launch to orbit. Hondas technology is somewhere over 15 years old …. And the article doesn’t say whether it’s comparable size or power, so no.
Honda's thing is still epic but you could probably even compare it to delta clipper, from 30 years ago or so
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Honda says growing expectations of a "data system in outer space" are going to increase the demand for rockets to launch satellites. So, the Japanese automaker quietly built one and tested it successfully.
Japan's second-largest carmaker, Honda, has successfully tested an experimental reusable space rocket on the nothern Japanese island of Hokkaido, the company said in a surprise announcement.
"The test was completed successfully, the first time Honda landed a rocket after reaching an altitude of nearly 300 meters (1,000 feet)," the company said in a statement on Tuesday.
The carmaker aims to achieve suborbital space flight in 2029. In 2021, Honda said it was studying space technologies such as reusable rockets but made no announcements prior to Tuesday's test
About time. Took the market long enough. Bloody hell, it's like capitalism literally handed Musk this business on a golden platter.
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Down voted because you didnt immediately talk shit about someone. We all hate musk but it doesnt mean we have to claim it for every post.
from what I've heard musk and the HR head is basically destroying spacex from the inside?
i dislike their upper management but i still appreciate what the people there do, and think what they're doing is incredible
lemmy doesn't seem to like nuance unfortunately
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only to seemingly all turn into a shit show.
He's a shit show, but SpaceX is still doing great. They have more launches per year than any other company or country. While they've had multiple launches explode recently, that's their newer larger rocket where they're still working out kinks.
If they can't get that into shape eventually it could be a problem for the company, but their smaller rocket has a great record, reusable, a fraction of the cost of any other launch provider. Right now they're the only game in town for the U.S. getting to the ISS.
I'd love to see Musk ousted, and more importantly to see real competition from other private launch providers. But don't let Musk hate color your view of reality.
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Honda landing rockets, VW getting fully automated vans to drive safely on roads, xAI burning through 1b monthly. Not a good time to be a musk, I guess.
He has so much money he could lose a billion dollars every month and still have billions left in 2055.
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from what I've heard musk and the HR head is basically destroying spacex from the inside?
i dislike their upper management but i still appreciate what the people there do, and think what they're doing is incredible
lemmy doesn't seem to like nuance unfortunately
Oh shit dont mention something good someone done! People might get their undies all in a twist.
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only to seemingly all turn into a shit show.
Just because you want something to be true doesn't make it so.
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This must terrify Musk and his SpaceX
It pleases me.
wrote on last edited by [email protected]I doubt that. Spacex is miles ahead of the rest and they have bigger plans.
Sure they would rather have a monopoly on cheap rockets for as long as possible but they have always known people would be trying to catch them up
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rivaling their ... 8 year old technology
not a fan of musk but spacex seriously leapfrogged everyone in the 2010s
Modern rockets have only been a thing for 70 years. 8 years is nothing. That would be like saying Rivian or Tesla can’t compete with Ford because they haven’t been making cars as long. Tesla didn’t have to spend a decade making the Model A or T before it figured out how to make cars effectively. Honda will also be able to spend less time making it to orbit than SpaceX did.
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Honda landing rockets, VW getting fully automated vans to drive safely on roads, xAI burning through 1b monthly. Not a good time to be a musk, I guess.
Do you have a link for the vw cars? Can't seem to find anything concrete
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rivaling their ... 8 year old technology
not a fan of musk but spacex seriously leapfrogged everyone in the 2010s
They really did! Starship could be a similar leap, if it pans out. It would be an incredible jump in launch capacity and a dramatic drop in price.
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Do you have a link for the vw cars? Can't seem to find anything concrete
German magazine Golem reported it today
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German magazine Golem reported it today
Thank you! Hope my German is still good enough to read it
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He's a shit show, but SpaceX is still doing great. They have more launches per year than any other company or country. While they've had multiple launches explode recently, that's their newer larger rocket where they're still working out kinks.
If they can't get that into shape eventually it could be a problem for the company, but their smaller rocket has a great record, reusable, a fraction of the cost of any other launch provider. Right now they're the only game in town for the U.S. getting to the ISS.
I'd love to see Musk ousted, and more importantly to see real competition from other private launch providers. But don't let Musk hate color your view of reality.
wrote on last edited by [email protected]Fair enough, though he builds all his personal image on completely associating his whole being with the companies he runs. Apparently he is even the chief engineer of spaceX probably because he wants to feel like Tony Stark. It is hard to trust a company where he names him self the chief engineer because that means he can enforce stupid decisions only because it sounds cool to him. Then once in a while he comes up with ridiculous stuff like donating his sperm for the mars mission or stuff like this:
https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/spacex-musk-safety/
https://aflcio.org/sites/default/files/2025-04/Memo on Elon Musk OSHA cases_.pdf
https://tech.yahoo.com/science/articles/elon-musk-told-spacex-workers-181406484.html
Otherwise kudos to all the great engineers who work there but I am not optimistic unless he lessens his influence there.
