JAXA and Mitsubishi Heavy fly RV-X reusable rocket testbed on first hop
JAXA · Mitsubishi Heavy Industries
JAXA and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries flew a short hover-and-land test of their RV-X reusable rocket testbed.
what happened
JAXA and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries' RV-X testbed lifted off, hovered and moved horizontally before landing in a flight lasting under a minute at JAXA's Noshiro Testing Center on July 11, per AP and Kyodo News. The vehicle rose 11 meters and moved 16 meters horizontally while staying upright before touching down on four shock-absorption landing legs; its engine has withstood 165 combustion tests to date.
why it matters
JAXA plans further RV-X flights at higher altitudes, working toward reusable-launch technology for a lower-cost successor to its expendable H3 rocket, developed jointly with France's CNES and Germany's DLR. It is an early testbed milestone, not yet a flight-proven vehicle, but it puts Japan's national space agency on the same reusability path SpaceX has used to cut launch costs.
for who
Launch-vehicle competitors, Japanese space-industry suppliers
signal-to-noise
quick facts
- Companies
- JAXA, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries
- Category
- launch
- Impact
- notable
- SNR
- 4 / 5
- Event date
- 2026-07-11
- Published
- 2026-07-12 06:24 UTC