Overview
- Japan’s space agency said the RV-X prototype lifted off, hovered, moved horizontally and landed safely from about 10 meters in a Noshiro test on Saturday in a flight that lasted roughly 40 seconds.
- JAXA and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries built the vehicle to be about 7.3 meters long and 1.8 meters in diameter with engines rated for greater durability and four shock-absorption landing legs.
- Engine and control data from the test will be analyzed by JAXA as it prepares follow-up RV-X flights at higher altitudes, with a near-term goal of about 100 meters for upcoming trials.
- JAXA will apply the RV-X results to the multinational Callisto demonstrator co-developed with French and German partners, which is scheduled for a flight test before next April.
- The program aims to lower the cost of launches by recovering the first stage, a shift driven by commercial competition from reusable systems such as SpaceX’s Falcon 9 and recent recoveries reported by other nations and private firms.