New rocket from Japan takes off and lands on deployable legs

While I've covered several Japanese launches, they've all centered on the relatively established H2 or H3 families of launch vehicles.  This Tuesday (in Japan) we were treated to the launch of a new rocket from a company that has never built a launch vehicle: Honda.  That's right, the storied and enormously successful Honda Motors has joined the space industry, launching a test vehicle reminiscent of the old "Star Hopper" or "Hoppy" from Starbase before the first Starships were ever tested.   

The video is short and honestly more entertaining than I would have guessed.  I see a lot of familiar aspects in this short little mission.  

The vehicle is small and the flight was short.  I'm reading that as "proof of concept." 

[M]easuring less than 21 feet (6.3 meters) tall and about 2.8 feet (85 centimeters) in diameter. Fully fueled, the rocket weighed about 2,892 pounds (1,312 kilograms). Honda has been reticent about the rocket's engines, but the company's video of the test flight suggests the liquid-fueled engines consume cryogenic propellants, possibly a mixture of methane and liquid oxygen. 

Stepping into new territory is only a strange thing to those who don't know the company.  Honda started out building motorcycles in 1946, dove into the automobile industry in 1963, and started building small jets in 1986.   

"We are pleased that Honda has made another step forward in our research on reusable rockets with this successful completion of a launch and landing test. We believe that rocket research is a meaningful endeavor that leverages Honda’s technological strengths," Toshihiro Mibe, global CEO of Honda, said in a press release.

"Honda will continue to take on new challenges—not only to offer our customers various services and value through our products, while addressing environmental and safety issues, but also to continue creating new value, which will make people's time and place more enjoyable," Mibe said. 

I was somewhat surprised to read that Honda is working with the Japanese Space Agency (JAXA) and Toyota motors on a pressurized, crewed, Moon rover. Honda has agreed to supply the rover with a renewable energy system for continuous production of oxygen, hydrogen, and electricity from sunlight and water. 

Honda isn't putting out specifics of how much they intend to focus on rockets.  There's talk about "still in the fundamental research phase," with the interest in possibly being being able to launch their own satellites to network their cars or other business cases like those that seem rather small.  

But Tuesday's test catapulted Honda into an exclusive club of companies that have flown reusable rocket hoppers with an eye toward orbital flight, including SpaceX, Blue Origin, and a handful of Chinese startups. Meanwhile, European and Japanese space agencies have funded a pair of reusable rocket hoppers named Themis and Callisto. Neither rocket has ever flown, after delays of several years. 

Japan's biggest rocket producer is Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, currently producing H2 and H3 boosters. MHI has never launched more than six missions in one year.  The H3 debuted in 2023 but didn't launch successfully for another year.  It is fully expendable.  

It might help perspective to remember that car companies aren't accustomed to making vehicles that can only be used once.  Much like aircraft companies. 

Honda's experimental rocket lifts off from a test site in Taiki, a community in northern Japan.