Honda pulls off surprise reusable rocket test launch
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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.
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Just because you want something to be true doesn't make it so.
or the other way around
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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
Yes, but Honda also builds nice things. They're not the neighbors you want moving in next door if your business is making reliable and precise things cheaply.
Maybe it doesn't matter because SpaceX just lies on all their bids anyways
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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
Now that's a diversification I didn't see coming. Not bad.
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rivaling their ... 8 year old technology
not a fan of musk but spacex seriously leapfrogged everyone in the 2010s
Oh no their very first prototype test didn't catch up and surpass everything. Guess they're doomed. Better give up and stop trying.
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Yeah. Most of humanity has been propagandised into believing that corporations, which are run like dictatorships where < 1% are the majority shareholders who control the operation, are actually equivalent to "freedom" and "democracy".
Clown world.
wrote on last edited by [email protected]Uh hey, wanna learn Spanish and Basque proficiently, move to Spain, and try to convince Mondragon to branch out into spaceflight, lol?
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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
Annnnnnnnnnnnd everyone else just been replaced.
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Just wait until they add VTEC to it
The aftermarket spoiler market for these will be huge.
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Now that's a diversification I didn't see coming. Not bad.
Time to invest in Honda.
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Was that a sonic boom? Nah, rev limiter!
Could have been the blowoff valve for the turbo! Or a shitty muffler delete on a nearby Infiniti
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Time to invest in Honda.
Maybe they're gonna go full Yamaha.
Can't wait to play a Honda Tenor Saxophone.
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Time to invest in Honda.
wrote on last edited by [email protected]Ehh they have an engine market problem. I've seen analysis that Honda isn't a car company, they're an engine company - cars, generators, lawn mowers, pumps, a whole whack of industrial things. They really need to shift to electric motors but even then it's not a 1 for 1.
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"OK, so, I want a Honda Civic, but for up and down instead of forwards and backwards."
Technically, orbit is just forward, really, really fast. "Up" is incidental to the process.
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Just make sure to point it the other way, first.
Where we are going, we don't need... wheels.
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This must terrify Musk and his SpaceX
It pleases me.
I don’t believe they have even hit space yet, the test was only from 1000 ft.
Still, cool as hell.
Wait. This is just more commodification of space.
Fuck that. And I will be against it until we figure out our fucking shit down here on the ground.
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The aftermarket spoiler market for these will be huge.
Wait until Hector gets to Harry’s…this shit gonna be lit.
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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
Fuck yeah!
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Oh no their very first prototype test didn't catch up and surpass everything. Guess they're doomed. Better give up and stop trying.
where the fuck did i ever say that
