"Japan's experimental reusable rocket took off and safely landed in a first test flight Saturday," [1]reports the Associated Press , as Japan "seeks to achieve the technology key to cut launch costs and compete in the global space market dominated by SpaceX."

> The RV-X rocket lifted off, hovered and moved horizontally before landing

[2]watch the video here

during its less than one-minute flight at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Noshiro Testing Center in northeastern Japan, which was livestreamed by the NVS, a group of space fans... Saturday's flight is a step forward for Japan in achieving the technology needed to develop a lower cost successor to the country's current mainstay, single-use [3]H3 series .

Japan's test comes the same week that China [4]recovered an orbital booster rocket for the first time.



[1] https://apnews.com/article/japan-reusable-rocket-h3-test-space-china-eb83b8385641a094b4cd69c3ee48090a

[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FsAn4GD7Ymk

[3] https://apnews.com/article/japan-jaxa-h3-rocket-launch-9c64f2c59b9212d612902e74823b77b5

[4] https://science.slashdot.org/story/26/07/10/1840220/china-lands-rocket-during-an-orbital-launch-for-first-time