←back to thread

Honda conducts successful launch and landing of experimental reusable rocket

(global.honda)
1355 points LorenDB | 3 comments | 17 Jun 25 15:02 UTC | HN request time: 0.643s | source
Show context
robszumski ◴[17 Jun 25 15:57 UTC] No.44300646[source]▶
For reference, Rocket Lab's Electron has a wet mass of 13,000 kg. This rocket is much smaller at 1,312 kg wet mass.
replies(2): >>44301143 #>>44309127 #
delichon ◴[17 Jun 25 16:49 UTC] No.44301143[source]▶

  Falcon 9           433k kg  
  Atlas V            547k kg
  Starship         1,200k kg
  Starship Booster 3,600k kg
replies(3): >>44301252 #>>44301330 #>>44301635 #
Certhas ◴[17 Jun 25 17:07 UTC] No.44301330[source]▶
k kg is a funny unit... Much more readable than Mg of course. Tonnes would also work...
replies(5): >>44301719 #>>44301750 #>>44302243 #>>44302928 #>>44307333 #
overfeed ◴[17 Jun 25 17:43 UTC] No.44301719[source]▶
Tonne is unfortunately overloaded, the US and the UK have their own versions, but for the rest of the world is on metric, and a tonne is 1000 kg. The Falcon 9 weighing "433 t" reads way more elegantly to me.
replies(4): >>44301776 #>>44302249 #>>44302699 #>>44303043 #
1. softfalcon ◴[17 Jun 25 18:30 UTC] No.44302249[source]▶
Here in Canada (where the mixup of metric vs imperial tonnes is common) we just say "metric tonnes" and move on. Everyone here knows that means 1000 kg.

European colleagues regularly go, "what other kind of tonnes are there?" and we get to share the joke of how silly Americans are for still using imperial tonnes.

replies(1): >>44303578 #
2. robocat ◴[17 Jun 25 20:28 UTC] No.44303578[source]▶
I've often seen mt written as the units for metric tons.

There's some ODD behavior where people in the US want to fuck up metric units (MB being the obvious in my lifetime non-engineer renaming of the meaning of a unit). I find the MM of finance confusing (not sure of origin). Calling tonnes, metric "tons", seems to be a US confusing thing. Or spelling metres vs meters.

Or creating units that depend on something country specific like football field (is that FIFA (EU), US, Canadian, Aussie).

Actually it seems common to desire to create industry units: https://www.theregister.com/Design/page/reg-standards-conver...

Sort of a NIH at the county level.

replies(1): >>44313954 #
3. inemesitaffia ◴[18 Jun 25 22:50 UTC] No.44313954[source]▶
mm is mille X mille.

As in thousand