Reusable Rockets Are All The Rage In China. Now Honda Wants In On The Fun.
SpaceX started it when it first flew rockets backwards after they were used to launch a spacecraft into orbit. Many rockets are actually comprised of multiple stages. Typically, the first stage does the hard work of getting the rocket off the ground and partially into orbit. Before SpaceX, those first-stage rockets ended up in the ocean, never to be recovered. The problem with that is that those devices cost a lot of money to build. If they can be recovered and reused, the price of getting a satellite into orbit goes down — a lot.
SpaceX proved it could be done. Now everyone and their cousin wants to follow in its footsteps. This is normal in human experience. On May 29, 1053, Sir Edmund Hillary and his Sherpa guide reached the top of Mount Everest after a grueling climb. Today, people with little climbing experience are accomplishing the same feat almost on their lunch break, thanks to new techniques.
While SpaceX was the first, several Chinese companies are hot on the heels of making recoverable rockets of their own. In fact, this week, Honda R&D, a division of Honda Motor Company, said it has successfully completed a test launch of a recoverable reusable rocket of its own.
China Nears Recoverable Rockets Breakthrough
China has a policy that allows multiple companies to compete in a quest for new technologies. Then it stands back and waits for the survival of the fittest concept to sort out the winners and losers. We have seen this in the new energy vehicle industry. BYD is currently king of the mountain, but it climbed over dozens of other companies who tried and failed.
In rocketry, there is a long list of companies who are intent on being the Chinese version of SpaceX. A partial list includes privately owned Sepoch, state-owned China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), Landspace, Space Pioneer, and others. They are all trying to be the first to launch and recover a first stage rocket.
According to Global Times, on May 30, 2025, Sepoch successfully completed a test flight of China’s first reusable liquid oxygen-methane rocket launch and recovery at sea. The test was conducted at the Haiyang Oriental Aerospace Port in East China’s Shandong province. On social media, the company claimed the test integrated multiple rocket technologies, including liquid oxygen-methane propulsion, stainless steel construction, and an offshore soft landing recovery. A full test of a spacecraft is expected to take place later this year.
The rocket, which is a version of the Sepoch “Hiker” series, is a full-scale, thin-walled stainless steel launch vehicle with a diameter of 4.2 meters, a height of approximately 26.8 meters, and a liftoff mass of about 57 tons. The test flight lasted 125 seconds and reached an altitude of 2.5 kilometers. The verification flight covered eight key phases: ignition and liftoff, full thrust ascent, variable thrust control, first engine shutdown, passive descent, engine re-ignition, deceleration and hovering over the sea, and the final soft landing. All phases proceeded smoothly, and the rocket was successfully recovered after splashdown, according to the company.
On June 20, 2025, Landspace performed a static fire test of its Zhuque-3 rocket at launch pad number two at the Dongfeng Commercial Space Innovation Test Zone at Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China. The Zhuque-3 uses 9 methane-liquid oxygen Tianque-12A rocket engines to propel the stainless steel first stage rocket. During the static fire test, the rocket’s engines ignited in sequence, fired for a total of 45 seconds, and produced 7,542 kN of thrust during the test, according to Interesting Engineering.
Not every static fire test goes smoothly. Last week, a static fire test of a SpaceX Starship ended in a massive explosion. But that failure was nothing compared to what happened to a static fire test performed by China’s Space Pioneer last year, when someone forgot to anchor the test vehicle to the ground. When the company began the test, the rocket flew up in the air before crashing on a nearby mountain. Oh, my!
Honda Reusable Rocket Test Launch
Honda R&D is a research and development subsidiary of Honda Motor Co. On June 17, 2025, it says it conducted a launch and landing test of an experimental reusable rocket that was 6.3 m (21 feet) long, 85 cm (2.8 feet) in diameter, with a launch weight of 1,312 kg (2,893 lb). During the test, the rocket reached an altitude of nearly 300 meters (900 feet).
Apart from those statistics, what was most impressive about the test flight is that the rocket retracted its four landing legs after liftoff, deployed four stabilizing fins during the flight, then retracted the fins and redeployed the landing gear prior to touchdown. It came to rest just 37 cm (15 inches) from its pre-launch target. Those are some serious technology chops for the company. Watch the video to see how elegantly the Honda rocket performed during the test flight.
Some will be surprised that Honda is dabbling in rockets, but it does build a highly regarded private jet. It also manufacturers lawnmowers, portable generators, and engines for IndyCar racers. It also theoretically is about to begin manufacturing the Afeela electric sedan in partnership with Sony — although, tariff chaos in the US may put that project on hold.
In a press release following the test flight, Honda CEO Toshihiro Mibe said, “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. 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.”
Other space-related projects Honda is involved with include a pressurized, crewed moon rover developed in partnership between Japan’s space agency (JAXA) and Toyota. Honda has agreed to supply the rover with a renewable energy system for continuous production of oxygen, hydrogen, and electricity from sunlight and water while on the surface of the moon.
First Mover Advantage
Some say being a first mover in a new technology confers a competitive advantage. That may be true for a while, but it also allows others to learn from early errors and quickly catch up. A good example is Tesla China, which jumped out to an early lead in the EV market but has since seen several other companies catch up and pass it, BYD being the prime example.
For a while, SpaceX had a monopoly on reusable rockets, but those days are about to end. China has every intention of being a player in space-based technology. It would not be a surprise if it wanted its own low earth orbit internet capability to compete with Starlink, and it clearly intends to have a presence of the moon.
What Honda’s intentions are for its reusable rocket is not clear. It mutters about some launches in 2029, but provides no details. Perhaps one day there will be so many satellites in Earth orbit that some of the sun’s energy will be reflected back into space to help cool the Earth. Whatever the future may be, China — and Honda — will be ready.
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