Honda successfully launches and lands reusable rocket
Honda is making its ambitions in space travel clear. In a first step, the company demonstrates the launch and landing of a reusable rocket.
The Honda rocket during a test flight.
(Image: Honda)
The Japanese Honda Group, more precisely Honda R&D (Research & Development), has launched a reusable rocket at a test facility in Taiki Town in Hokkaido. Honda announced this in a statement on Tuesday. The rocket reached a maximum altitude of almost 271 meters before landing safely at the launch site.
Honda's rocket is not large and is therefore no comparison to the partially reusable Falcon 9 rocket from Elon Musk's space company SpaceX, which can carry payloads such as satellites into space. With a height of 6.3 m and a diameter of 85 cm, Honda's rocket is more of a prototype designed to show whether the technology works and can be commercialized. The dry weight of the rocket is 900 kg, the take-off weight, 1312 kg.
Landing deviation of 37 cm
On Tuesday, the rocket ascended from the Honda test site in Taiki Town. The surrounding area had been cordoned off within a safety radius of 1 km. The rocket reached an altitude of almost 271 meters. It then landed back at the launch point with a deviation of just 37 cm. The total flight time was 56.6 seconds.
Honda has big ambitions. The company wants to realize suborbital space flights by 2029. Testing the rocket is part of the basic research needed to safely master rocket technology. Honda had already announced plans to build reusable rockets in 2021. So far, little of this has been made public. In this respect, Honda has achieved a surprising coup with the successful launch and landing of a reusable rocket.
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Honda has left open what exactly will happen next. However, the successful attempt with the rocket should spur them on to continue. Whether it will ultimately become a commercially viable rocket program, for example to transport payloads such as satellites into space, is still unclear. Honda itself writes that “no decision has yet been made regarding the commercialization of this rocket technology”.
(olb)
