Honda just pulled off something no one saw coming - successfully launching and landing a 20-foot reusable rocket at its Japan facility. The automotive giant isn't just diversifying; it's positioning itself as a direct challenger to SpaceX with ambitious plans for satellite deployment, lunar colonies, and space robotics that could reshape the commercial space race.
Honda just became the latest company to crash SpaceX's party, and they're bringing decades of transportation expertise to the space race. In June, the Japanese automotive giant successfully launched and landed a 20-foot reusable rocket at its research facility in Hokkaido, marking a stunning pivot that few saw coming.
The move caught industry watchers off guard, but according to Kazuo Sakurahara - a former Formula One racing director who now heads Honda's space development strategy - it's actually a natural evolution. "Honda products have already expanded across land, sea, and sky," Sakurahara told The Verge in his first conversation with American press. "So, it is not surprising that space is the next field of opportunity."
But this isn't just corporate expansion for expansion's sake. Honda sees rockets as critical infrastructure for its core automotive business. The company plans to deploy satellites that support the connected features and autonomous driving systems increasingly essential to modern vehicles. "The rocket could be used to take satellites up to support mobility, energy, and communication," Sakurahara explained, referencing the wide-area communication networks that power everything from advanced driver assistance to full autonomy plans.
Sam Abuelsamid, vice president of market research for Telemetry consulting, sees the strategic logic immediately. "Honda could potentially use such satellites for its own vehicles, globally. Or it could sell this capability to other manufacturers," he says. "I could see not wanting to be reliant on a veritable monopoly like SpaceX, especially from someone who is as unstable as Elon Musk."
The timing isn't coincidental either. With geopolitical tensions rising in Asia and uncertainty around US alliances, Japan's national security considerations are driving corporate space ambitions. "These technologies could potentially provide defensive capabilities," Abuelsamid notes. "And they probably realized that they don't want to be overly dependent on the US for that at this point."
