{"id":579986,"date":"2026-07-11T07:06:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-11T07:06:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/579986\/"},"modified":"2026-07-11T07:06:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-11T07:06:12","slug":"japans-space-agency-conducts-first-test-flight-for-experimental-reusable-rocket","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/579986\/","title":{"rendered":"Japan’s space agency conducts first test flight for experimental reusable rocket"},"content":{"rendered":"

TOKYO — Japan’s experimental reusable rocket took off and safely landed in a first test flight Saturday as the country seeks to achieve the technology key to cut launch costs and compete in the global space market dominated by SpaceX<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The RV-X rocket lifted off, hovered and moved horizontally before landing during its less than one-minute flight at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency\u2019s Noshiro Testing Center in northeastern Japan, which was livestreamed by the NVS, a group of space fans. <\/p>\n

JAXA is expected to explain the results in an online briefing later Saturday.<\/p>\n

Japan seeks to catch up with the technology Elon Musk\u2019s SpaceX has been using for several years to cut launch costs of delivering payloads into space.<\/p>\n

Saturday\u2019s flight is a step forward for Japan in achieving the technology needed to develop a lower cost successor to the country\u2019s current mainstay, single-use H3 series<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The flight comes one day after state media in China<\/a> reported the country achieved its first successful recovery of the first stage of a rocket after a liftoff.<\/p>\n

Japan’s H3 rocket is designed to be more cost effective than its predecessor H-2A<\/a> series, which had a near-perfect success record, but still needs further cost cuts to compete in the global space market.<\/p>\n

The Japanese government says a stable, commercially competitive transport capability is key to the country’s space program and national security.<\/p>\n

JAXA and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries have been co-developing the RV-X, which is 1.8 meters (5.9 feet) in diameter and 7.3 meters (23.9 feet) long and equipped with engines with enhanced durability and four shock-absorption landing gear. <\/p>\n

JAXA, which is jointly developing reusable rockets with France and Germany, plans to send the RV-X rocket to a higher altitude of about 100 meters (218 feet) in future test flights.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TOKYO — Japan’s experimental reusable rocket took off and safely landed in a first test flight Saturday as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":579987,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[270],"tags":[17931,14527,79,18,3334,19,17,133,451,14526,82,66],"class_list":["post-579986","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-aerospace-and-defense-industry","tag-aerospace-technology","tag-business","tag-eire","tag-general-news","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-science","tag-space","tag-space-launches","tag-technology","tag-world-news"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116900082460306365","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579986","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=579986"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579986\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/579987"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=579986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=579986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=579986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}