Honda Now Makes VTOL Rockets and Early Tests Are Encouraging
If we needed any further indication that the 21st-century space race is heating up, Japanese car maker Honda has thrown its hat in the ring with a successful test of a reusable first-stage rocket. Said to have been under development for at least six years, the rocket flew to a height of 900 feet before returning carefully and safely to the launch pad, completely intact.
Although the space shuttle pioneered the idea of reusable launch vehicles in the 1970s, it was only in the 2000s and 2010s that the idea really took off. The SpaceX Falcon 9 became the first commercial launch vehicle to nail the reusable first-stage concept, but others have followed in its wake, and many more are expected from US and Chinese aerospace firms in the 2020s. Honda just demonstrated the first potential Japanese launch vehicle that could do much the same.
In this test, Honda launched a small rocket, measuring just 21 feet tall and 2.8 feet in diameter, weighing just under 2,900 pounds when fully fuelled up. The rocket took off from its launch pedestal, retracting its landing legs in the process. It then flew carefully to its intended height of around 900 feet before extending fins similar to those of the Falcon 9 and performing a controlled descent. It touched back down within just a few inches of its intended target, according to Honda.
The flight lasted just under a minute.
Honda said that this test represented the successful deployment of "key technologies essential for rocket reusability, such as flight stability during ascent and descent, as well as landing capability."
Honda has discussed its rocket efforts before. As Ars Technica points out, in 2021 it said it had been working on a small launch vehicle for the previous two years and hoped to develope a reusable rocket design that could take a metric ton of payload into orbit. Honda hasn't suggested whether this rocket is the prototype for that design or just a way to test key technologies. It has previously said it would work on rocketry until 2025/2026 and then make a decision on whether to continue, so this test may have been an important indicator of Honda's future plans.
"In this market environment, Honda has chosen to take on the technological challenge of developing reusable rockets by utilizing Honda technologies amassed in the development of various products and automated driving systems, based on a belief that reusable rockets will contribute to achieving sustainable transportation," Honda said in a statement.
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