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By zikalify · Posted
From cars to cosmos: Honda's experimental rocket aces first landing test by Paul Hill Image via Honda Watch your back SpaceX, the Japanese company Honda has just performed a successful first launch of its experimental reusable rocket. The 6.3 meter rocket, which weighs 900kg, reached a modest altitude of 271.4 meters, but managed to land within 37cm of its target (1.2 feet), which is certainly pretty close. The rocket took off from a Honda facility in Taiki Town, Hokkaido, a growing space town in Japan. The flight time was also modest, coming in at just 56.6 seconds, but in that time, Honda was able to demonstrate key reusability technologies such as flight stability and landing capability. This marks a significant milestone for Honda’s space R&D department, which began work just four years ago. If you remember the tests SpaceX was performing around 2012 with Grasshopper, well Honda is at about the same stage with its reusable rocket. Why Honda is building rockets: Beyond cars and motorcycles Honda said that it wants to leverage core technologies it already works on for offering space services. It said that reusable rockets are a key part of sustainable space transportation. By 2029, the company wants to be able to perform suborbital launches, and while commercialization hasn’t been decided yet, it sees itself launching remote-sensing and wide-area communication satellites in the future. The Japanese car maker sees growing demand for satellite launches and wants to be involved by developing reusable rockets which could help it perform such launches economically. If it does end up finding customers, it will add more competition to the rocket launch sector. While the company hasn’t confirmed this, by developing its own launch system, it could eventually be in a position to launch its own satellites that could provide services to its cars to add value for customers. The competitive landscape and Japan's space ambitions Honda is just the latest company to join the growing list of companies trying to develop reusable rocket technology. The most famous companies doing this are SpaceX and Blue Origin, but there are also lots of other companies around the world also developing this technology. Honda is still taking baby steps compared to SpaceX, but it shows that the company is taking a focused, step-by-step approach, and achieving successes as noted by this launch. Hopefully, the company ends up providing tough competition against SpaceX, Blue Origin, and other companies so that it can help to drive down prices and spur on innovation. -
By +Nik Louch · Posted
Does that subscription include international data roaming, inclusive of Russia? -
By Nick H. · Posted
If you're stupid enough to try and get one, each and every headache along the way is on you. I can only hope that these roadblocks on a pre-order are enough to dissuade people. -
By Nick H. · Posted
"You should have a Microsoft Account because we can help keep your data safe...until we can't." As an IT guy I know that I should never put my trust in one backup solution if the data is important. But for non-IT people, they are getting tricked into Microsoft's practices with falsehoods. -
By Lamp0 · Posted
it is delayed and has no definitive release date... that is "delayed indefinitely".
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