From Subscale to Space: Honda's Rocket Ambitions

And uh um since we're on Japan, let's actually talk about Honda next. Actually, um you guys may have seen a while back that Honda had their small uh subscale um uh rocket that they were doing propulsive landing tests with. And uh this week they um uh well, first here's a replay of uh that flight. And they basically announced that they are seriously getting into the space industry. And there already was announcement that they are uh cooperating with the the the Artemis program specifically with Astrobotic to deliver essentially batteries to the the the surface of the moon that could be a regenerative system so that we don't waste any electricity that we may generate via solar power or nuclear power. Um and so that's great. But with uh what they've announced this week is that they are going to make a larger version of this little subscale demonstrator rocket and seriously get into the space business. And I don't know about you guys, but I'm really excited about the prospects of that. Yes, they might be a little late to the game, but it's Honda. I think that they have a serious shot, especially because this little project that we're seeing on screen was literally a teeny tiny side project with maybe a couple million dollars thrown at it, but also helping for the development of this where this test was done, this Tiki town um that they're trying to to build up as like a space center um business centers so to speak, where all all sorts of manufacturing could be done. So, there is some interesting things going on and although a little late, I think that Honda could be a serious serious contender into this the launch industry and having reusable rockets. >> I have questions. I have questions. Okay, so my first question was going to be how large was their subscale vehicle? And I think I was able to just tell with that last footage cuz there were humans standing next to it. So, it's not large, not small, right? It's it's pretty tiny. Um, >> but like This isn't enough size for an actual for a model. Yeah. Okay, cool. So, then how big are they going to make the real vehicle? >> Not sure yet. Um and I think that they're still uh working on um designs and figuring out what the the business case would need. I would assume that they would probably be going trying to aim for the small to medium launcher first. Could be wrong about that, but that's my assumption for where they would start. >> Wait, wait, go back. They had they they were they were setting up camp at the Apollo land landing site. Yeah. Did you just notice that? >> I did. >> Yeah. >> That wasn't them using Apollo landers. That was them setting up at the Apollo landing site, which wouldn't have uh the the the actual uh module on top. It would only have the uh the service module there. So, not quite an exact uh uh representation, but who knows? Maybe >> that's the uh Aremis 3 landing site with the lunar lander. Oh, cuz right cuz we reopened the contract and uh we still haven't heard Lockheed's proposal to just grab one from one of the museums and refurbish it. That's right. I forgot. >> I thought that was just Northrup Grumman going into their archives and just copy pasting. >> Oh. Oh. Oh, it might be. It might be. You sure it's not L3 Harris? I thought it was L3 Harris rocket dine.