According to Honda, the purpose of entering the space race with advanced reusable space vehicles is “to enable people to transcend the constraints of time, place, or ability and make people’s daily lives more enjoyable.”

Whether that vision will be realised remains to be seen, but one thing is certain: space is the next frontier. Elon Musk’s SpaceX has already pushed the boundaries with the development of Starship, a fully reusable spacecraft that was considered nearly impossible just a few years ago.

SpaceX has reignited a modern space race—and now Honda is joining in. While the company already builds private jets as a side venture, escaping Earth’s orbit and venturing into space presents an entirely different level of challenge, requiring extreme engineering solutions.

On June 17, 2025, Honda successfully launched and landed a demonstration of its experimental reusable rocket system. The vehicle—6.3 meters in length, 85 centimetres in diameter, with a dry weight of 900 kg and a wet weight of 1,312 kg—was developed independently by Honda.

The test reached an altitude of nearly 300 meters and marked the first time Honda successfully landed a rocket.