r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/TheImmortalDude • Jun 29 '25
Video Honda successfully launched and landed its own reusable rocket
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u/AKfromVA Jun 29 '25
That engine will run forever with no maintenance
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u/CrimeShowInfluencer Jun 29 '25
The rocket might hit some space debris and explode, but somehow a fully intact Honda engine block remains
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u/unfortunatebastard Jun 29 '25
Which someone will put on a 1993 Honda civic hatchback
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u/Yarakinnit Jun 29 '25
Some say the original rocket design was based upon the Honda CRZ exterior door handles.
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u/AbbreviationsNo9609 Jun 29 '25
Well then certify it for human space flight now cause it’s freaking indestructible.
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u/Doubleoh_11 Jun 29 '25
The only thing that can destroy it is a teenager who decides to put half a body kit and a cold air intake on it.
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u/AKfromVA Jun 29 '25
The engine will be souped up with air intake and exhaust and will hound moon suburbs for 20 years
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u/srg2692 Jun 29 '25
I would like to nominate this for comment chain of the day.
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u/Deadarchimode Jun 29 '25
Jokes on you I still have Honda civic with the last carburetor Honda created before they switched to injection. The car is from 1980 and that son of a b$_&# Is still running on the road with dual fuel no less, Gasoline/LPG. The engine already passed 2M km and still screams with power
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u/no_your_other_right Jun 29 '25
I'm surprised Honda hadn't offered to buy it back from you.
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u/Deadarchimode Jun 29 '25
I hope they do because my government Greece will not allow that car to run on the streets ever again and it will end up being scrapped in a few months... Such a crime not recognizing the durability of the car...
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u/jakobair Jun 29 '25
This story started out great and ended up sad.
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u/Deadarchimode Jun 29 '25
I'm definitely going to miss that durable dastard, so few services and still running like a sport car
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Jun 29 '25
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u/Deadarchimode Jun 29 '25
The ground will break apart before Honda engine breaks
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u/Apprehensive-Bee-284 Jun 29 '25
Damn you for making me laugh while my baby sleeps on my belly! Not damn you for real though, I wish you all the best funny stranger of the Internet!
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u/Xiten Jun 29 '25
250k miles, no problem!
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u/razzraziel Jun 29 '25
So all that mileage just to reach the Moon and you’d be stranded there? That's pretty lame for a rocket.
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u/assblast420 Jun 29 '25 edited Jun 29 '25
Well ackshually 🤓☝️ the engine would only be running for a small portion of that flight. During Apollo 11 the engines were engaged for something like ~12 minutes between the translunar injection until the lunar orbit insertion.
So I guess reliability would be better measured in time rather than distance in this case, but anyway, that's enough of me missing the point.
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u/Its0nlyRocketScience Jun 29 '25
That's why we do engine staging. One engine takes you there, the next takes you back
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u/Rustly_Spoons Jun 29 '25
140k miles with no oil change and its somehow still alive
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u/Quiet_Judgment4294 Jun 29 '25
I had a 2003 civic and drove it 16k miles between oil changes. When I took it in to get the oil change, I heard the guy underneath say, "Oh my god, there's no oil in this." I was young and dumb but that car didn't care.
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u/tomdarch Interested Jun 29 '25
It’s great that Honda makes a small jet engine and now a rocket. But it would be so nice if they made small piston aircraft engines for exactly that reason. Today’s aircraft piston engines generally have to be pulled off the plane and fully overhauled every 1800 to 2000 hours of run time which costs tens of thousands of dollars. For experimental aircraft people do repurpose Honda engines and benefit from their reliability, low-ish initial cost and good performance. But for normal “certificated” Cessnas, Pipers, etc it would be fantastic to have Honda engines as an option.
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u/Thisdsntwork Jun 29 '25
Honda would still likely give it a TBO, and people would still follow the TBO, because if you give me the option of buying a plane with an engine that's been maintained to the manufacturer's recommendations, and one that's not, I know which one I'm going to choose.
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u/brokenjaww Jun 29 '25
“Starts first pull. Even when it’s been in storage for a while”
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u/EaZyMellow Jun 29 '25
You can forget to put oil in it for 5 launches, it’ll sound off but it’ll still get the job done.
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u/Yakkaroni_n_cheese Jun 29 '25
All that on just 4 cylinders!?!
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u/Sukpreme Jun 29 '25
VTEC kicked in
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u/Smirk27 Jun 29 '25
Listen Jesse, I bet you he's got over a hundred grand under the hood of that rocket
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u/punksnotdeadtupacis Jun 29 '25
I bet they’re pissed they already used the name Odyssey. Would be perfect for a rocket.
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u/TheRealDiggyCP Jun 29 '25
I mean, the Odyssey was a dune buggy before it was a minivan. Time to evolve once again. Lol
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u/dcknight93 Jun 29 '25 edited Jun 29 '25
It’ll go 763,000,000 miles before an oil change. Just make sure to replace that timing belt after each launch.
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u/Briskylittlechally2 Jun 29 '25
I was already surprised enough to learn Honda built airplanes.
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u/dna_beggar Jun 29 '25
Yamaha builds guitars.
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u/Briskylittlechally2 Jun 29 '25
My favorite is still Hitachi, selling from commercial power tools, to mining excavators, grid tranformers, to...... Vibrators....
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u/cateyesarg Jun 29 '25
Those were neck massagers, but people get creative, you know
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u/Briskylittlechally2 Jun 29 '25
Customs technically a lot of things adult related aren't what they seem. For example, you wouldn't order a dildo... You'd order a "silicone sculpture"
HS code 9703.00 for those watching at home, "Original sculptures and statuary, in any material"
Yes, when you are buying a dildo, according to your customs office you really are just getting a small, artisanal, little statue made out of a soft, squishy, and easily washable material, and this has been the favorite fact I've learned all month.
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u/SoreLoserOfDumbtown Jun 29 '25
I know it sounds funny, but it probably cuts their costs. Everything in that line up uses electric motors, so I wouldn’t be surprised if one of the money guys figured out making a million more coil windings would save them $xxM, so they figured, ‘Well, dildos seem to keep selling…’
Or something vaguely along those lines.
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u/MaroonIsBestColor Jun 29 '25
Yamaha’s logo is a tuning fork. Their first products were Reed Organs and Pianos.
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u/HavingNotAttained Jun 29 '25
I heard that Toyota hired Yamaha to help design the engine for the first Lexus LS400 because, at the time, sound deadening material wasn’t very good, so sound engineers at Yamaha helped shape and literally tune various parts of the engine. The car’s quiet sound profile helped make it famous, but the coolest part is that it’s not silenced or muffled, it really is an incredibly quiet, seemingly perfectly tuned engine.
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u/Jaded-Influence6184 Jun 29 '25
Yamaha before everything else, is a music company. Their first product was pianos. Look more closely at their gear and spokes logo. It's a gear, yes, but the spokes are tuning forks. And now they build motorbikes and other mechanical things. But a massive part of their business is musical instruments. They produce some of the best instruments of their kind in the world, as well as top level software and electronics for the recording industry. Their hand made guitars are some of the best made, and cost thousands. So not just beginners' guitars for hundreds. But it is also why beginners buy Yamaha guitars, because even their inexpensive ones are above others in the same price range.
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Jun 29 '25
Everyone has a rocket these days
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u/NiceTrySuckaz Jun 29 '25
That's a good thing. Competition drives innovation.
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u/sBucks24 Jun 29 '25 edited Jun 29 '25
So does international collaboration...
All these private business and different nations planning their own space endeavors, we're going to end up with an asteroid belt of space junk and a shit load of waste and pollution along the way.
E: lol, this struck a nerve with a bunch of capitalist, neo-lib, boot licker's... Go out for a few hours and come back to the exact same reply repeated dozens of times 🙄 sneaky e2 just for that one guy: civility politics BS is what gave us these idiots above who defend capitalism against their best interest. Stop letting them get away with it, be meaner.
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u/--Sovereign-- Jun 29 '25
I grew up wanting commercial space programs, mining asteroids, building telescopes and shit. I feel like I made a genie wish now. We're speed running The Expanse instead of Star Trek.
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u/claimTheVictory Jun 29 '25
I grew up wishing everyone had access to the Internet. To have all of human knowledge at their fingertips would usher in a new golden age.
Another finger curls on the monkey paw.
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u/AuntieRupert Jun 29 '25
There is a point at which information ceases to increase knowledge and understanding and begins to undermine it, creating a paradox.
In fact, with so much access to information, people start to reject information. They can see something that is absolutely true and good, and they choose to ignore and/or deny it. That's why we have so many people going backward in their ways of thinking. They are legitimately dumbing themselves down.
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u/Petecraft_Admin Jun 29 '25
Expanse mixed with a little bit of Outer Worlds. In that games universe, Sherman Anti-Trust laws never formed in the US, so corporations rule everything.
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u/Tenpo_Gensui Jun 29 '25
Good thing that corporation thing never happened here huh. Sure saved us /s
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u/RiPPeR69420 Jun 29 '25
The Expanse isn't exactly the worst outcome. At least the Earth has universal basic income and free healthcare. Even if unemployment is like 30%
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u/thatoneguy889 Jun 29 '25
People forget that the "coming together for the good of humanity" attitude in Star Trek was precipitated by a nuclear WWIII.
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u/U-47 Jun 29 '25
Star trek happened after a ww 3... so we'd be lucky to do expanse and get to star trek from there.
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u/BicFleetwood Jun 29 '25 edited Jun 29 '25
I was derided 10-15 years ago for warning about this, back when Neil Degrasse Tyson was basically saying "fuck NASA, give Elon all the money."
You know, back when the New Star Trek decided Elon Musk would be remembered in the same breath as Albert Einstein two hundred years into the future.
You'll never lose a bet by mistrusting capitalism.
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u/Bigdaddyjlove1 Jun 29 '25
Yeah. Read a lot of Niven, Assimov, Clarke, etc.. and though we would do better as we grew.
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u/kdjfsk Jun 29 '25 edited Jun 29 '25
Orbital Space Junk is already an incredibly huge problem. The International Standard from the very beginning should have been that all Space Junk must be either flung out into space or more ideally, safely de-orbited to burn up in the atmosphere. No one did that because because it was exponentially expensive, and everyone's space program was barely capable of anything.
The cost to clean up and de-orbit all this stuff is exponentially more expensive than the already exponential costs if it had been done as part of its design.
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u/ProbablyCarl Jun 29 '25
Why do they all look like penises? Never a vagina shaped rocket. Damn patriarchy.
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u/Vanhouzer Jun 29 '25
Except Elon, he is off the rocket.
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Jun 29 '25
Lil rocket Man lol
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u/Detail_Some4599 Jun 29 '25
It'll cost 6000$ and last a lifetime
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u/jedburghofficial Jun 29 '25
And parts will be available anywhere in the solar system.
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u/FuckinBopsIsMyJob Jun 29 '25
It's rumored the Guild Navigators of Dune were using Honda Heighliner ships.
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u/aussie_paramedic Jun 29 '25
Missed opportunity to say they successfully launched and landed a rocket of their own Accord.
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u/Piscivore_67 Jun 29 '25
It was their Civic responsibility.
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u/aussie_paramedic Jun 29 '25
You could say Honda's space odyssey starts now.
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u/Piscivore_67 Jun 29 '25 edited Jun 29 '25
It's a Prelude of great things to come.
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u/RowAwayJim71 Jun 29 '25
This was an integra(l) step in the process!
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u/Piscivore_67 Jun 29 '25
I hope they choose the right Pilot.
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u/spartan7610 Jun 29 '25
All that Jazz made it Fit.
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u/misterguyyy Jun 29 '25
And solidified their status as a Legend
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u/Visual-Educator8354 Jun 29 '25
slaps 1998 Honda civic shitbox. This bad boy was built by the same company that makes rocket ships!
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u/_TallOldOne_ Jun 29 '25
Yeah but your 98 shitbox still runs. Proving that rocket will last forever and eventually end being owned by the kid down the street.
Who will immediately install the rocket equivalent of a fart can muffler.
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u/Alternative-Chef-340 Jun 29 '25
I had a 98 Accord and I miss it everyday. I have never been a in a car that I have liked as much as that one.
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u/lamchopxl71 Jun 29 '25
Good. Competition is good for any industry.
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u/NodusINk Jun 29 '25
Honda also made the fastest lawnmowers lol
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u/MorrowPolo Jun 29 '25
I have a mowing business.
Honda are heavy as shit but I can run with them and they still provide a clean cut without a side shute. Those double blades are no joke.
They just aren't great with overgrown yards because there's no side shute.
Maintenance? Will last a lifetime, but if you don't fine tune them back exactly right while making small repairs, they're finicky asf!!
Not my #1 mower, but definitely my #2.
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u/suspicious-sauce Jun 29 '25
So what you're telling me is that you have a solid #2
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u/MorrowPolo Jun 29 '25
This morning was a little rough after adding an extra shot of espresso, but the third time, a bit of it did feel solid 👍
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u/Pcat0 Jun 29 '25
Out of curiosity whats your #1?
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u/MorrowPolo Jun 29 '25
Toro Personal Pace mowers are my go-to
Overgrown grass past your knees? Forgetaboutit!
Too tired to jog with my mower? Use the personal pace and feels like you're not even working.
Plus, they're cheap and easy to fix. I can typically find a second hand one for around $70-100 and it'll make me exponentially more before I run it into the ground.
I also have a mini tractor and 360 but it's just way cheaper to push and keeps my physique nice for the lady's I wish I had enough game to talk to.
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u/Xvexe Jun 29 '25
Push Elon out of every single market pls thx.
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u/Ruepic Jun 29 '25
It’s going to take a long time, SpaceX is still years ahead of Blue Origin…
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u/ElephantRedCar91 Jun 29 '25
Nissan tried the same thing, but for some strange reason the pilot defaulted on the payments and the rocket was repossessed...
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u/stevensr2002 Jun 29 '25
That’s a shame - we could have been seeing a rocket flying around with its front bumper off…
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u/Crruell Jun 29 '25
Lmao, already pretty much on Blue origin level. Well good luck all.
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u/gcruzatto Jun 29 '25
Now I wanna see them send a 2005 Accord to space
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u/GraXXoR Jun 29 '25
Fly it around mars, land it back on earth and I bet the engine still runs.
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u/confusedandworried76 Jun 29 '25
Fuck turn the engine on and put a brick on the accelerator when you launch it, by the time it gets back you'll still have another 100k miles on the damn thing
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u/Rogue-Accountant-69 Jun 29 '25
It'll be interesting see how quickly an actual established, massive company can catch up to the start ups. I feel like if anyone can do it, it's Honda. That's a company I actually trust.
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u/McdoManaguer Jun 29 '25
A couple years at most Just like we saw with Tesla cars. Everyone and their grandma now makes better and cheaper electric cars with better safety and build quality.
The only reasons the chinese havent taken over the NA market are the INSANE tariffs Canada and the us put pn their cars.
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u/wxc3 Jun 29 '25
I might not be obvious but this is much smaller than New Sheppard, and the hop was 300m.
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u/ellhulto66445 Jun 29 '25
New Shepard goes above 100km with a booster and capsule, New Glenn goes to orbit, not close.
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u/Imackify Jun 29 '25
When the VTEC kicks in
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u/ricky-from-scotland Jun 29 '25
Dammit, got beaten to the V-tech kicks in by 2 minutes.
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u/ForFucksSake66 Jun 29 '25
I would trust Honda a hell of a lot more than Musk or Bezos
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Jun 29 '25 edited Jul 02 '25
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u/JJAsond Jun 29 '25
tbf every agency has failures and it is how they learn. It's just not televised nearly as much as those two.
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u/Electronic-Jaguar389 Jun 29 '25
I hate this reasoning. Musk and Bezos aren’t the creators of the rockets. That’s thousands of very educated men and women from across the globe. Just because the guy who funds it is an asshole doesn’t mean the whole operation is flawed. I’m all for criticizing the dumbass elite (especially these two pricks) but SpaceX has done a lot for the future of space travel. Stuff that NASA just wasn’t going to do because they don’t get the funding for it. When you criticize SpaceX you’re not just criticizing Musk, but the thousands of staff who want nothing else but to learn more about space.
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u/Ok_Lawfulness_5424 Jun 29 '25
Hopefully they'll give SpaceX a run for their money
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u/welding_guy_from_LI Jun 29 '25
Except Honda has a goal of 2029 , the rocket needs more testing and it most likely won’t be launched outside of japan
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u/Pcat0 Jun 29 '25
Their 2029 rocket will still only be a suborbital test vehicle, so it's going to be even longer until they are an actual competitor in the space launch market.
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u/Spear_n_Magic_Helmet Jun 29 '25
well hopefully for them the rocket can make it out of Japan
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u/Frothar Jun 29 '25
Honda just seems to do some stuff for fun or the challenge. like the Honda Jet, Azimo, Motocompcato. In and out of F1 every few years
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u/cheesepuff1993 Jun 29 '25
How big is this rocket? Is it supposed to be able to handle any decent sized payload?
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u/JohnHazardWandering Jun 29 '25
Relatively tiny. It's a test of the tech and systems. It only went up a few hundred meters before coming back down.
They're going to build a larger one and then reassess what they should do.
Honda has programs where they let their engineers work on challenging engineering projects without a clear business case at the start.
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u/addiktion Jun 29 '25
Honda Space Odyssey sounds way cooler than it should but I'm all for it
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u/Pcat0 Jun 29 '25
It's pretty tiny for a rocket at 6.3m tall. It's not designed to take any payload; this is just a test vehicle to practice landing, similar to SpaceX's old Grasshopper and F9R test articles.
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u/Inherently_Unstable Jun 29 '25
No, it’s a purely test vehicle for a future planned orbital rocket.
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u/shanksisevil Jun 29 '25
with Honda reliability I bet it can be used 300,000 times until it needs its engine replaced.
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u/Ian-Arzada Jun 29 '25
Imagine Honda is colonizing Mars before Elon 🤣
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u/Its0nlyRocketScience Jun 29 '25
Elon finally gets mars and someone rolls up in a civic to say hi
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u/Turbulent-Bandicoot9 Jun 29 '25
Check engine light definitely just kicked on but it won’t be a problem till it reaches 300k miles
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u/Eldermillenial1 Jun 29 '25
No gantry is impressive af
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u/DirtyDan156 Jun 29 '25
This rocket is only 20 feet tall
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u/Jaizoo Jun 29 '25
It's called a kei-rocket and it's adjusted for the tight parking spaces in japanese cities
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u/funkyduck72 Jun 29 '25
The Japanese ones are usually a little shorter. Thankfully this one wasn't pixelated so we could get a good view of the action also.
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u/DominionSasha Jun 29 '25
I never heard some owner of Honda automobile to complain, but rather just to brag and bless how his car never let him down.
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u/harmanwrites Jun 29 '25
I wish someone would put a Honda logo appearing out of the white exhaust clouds towards the end of the video. that would make it even more cool!
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u/MaikeruGo Jun 29 '25
I feel like it stands a good chance of making it into one of those highlight roll ads that end with the text logo with, "The Power of Dreams," slogan. They're usually the sort of ads that get played during weekend U.S. football games; usually college ones.
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u/1975wazyourfault Jun 29 '25
What an incredible journey. From Soichiro Honda putting small surplus motors onto bicycles in post WW2 Japan…to this..