ispace is a Japanese lunar exploration company that aims to provide low-cost and frequent transportation services to the Moon. They specialize in designing and building lunar landers and rovers for payload delivery and data collection. ispace has partnerships with organizations like JAXA and ESA, and their customers include government space agencies, research institutions, and private companies. The company's vision is to expand human presence beyond Earth by enabling the utilization of lunar resources.
All verified mentions of this organization in source documents.
Jumpei Nozaki is CFO of ispace and will continue to serve as Director as of 2022-07-01.
ispace expects the HAKUTO‑R Mission 1 to launch from the United States on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.
iSpace plans to conduct Hyperbola-2 hop tests ahead of a potential orbital launch in 2023.
Takeshi Hakamada is Founder & CEO of ispace and will continue to serve as Representative Director as of 2022-07-01.
Beijing-based iSpace became the first private Chinese launch company to reach orbit in 2019 with Hyperbola-1.
Beijing-based iSpace became the first Chinese company outside the state-owned traditional space sector to successfully launch a satellite into orbit in July 2019.
iSpace planned vertical takeoff and vertical landing (VTVL) tests for 2021 following testing of methalox engines, software, grid fins, and landing leg deployment.
Chinese state media Xinhua confirmed the iSpace Hyperbola-1 failure four hours after the 2022-05-13 launch.
iSpace secured $173,000,000 in funding in August 2020 to support Hyperbola-2 development.
The fourth Hyperbola-1 launch from iSpace lifted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the Gobi Desert at 3:09 a.m. Eastern on 2022-05-13.
Beijing-based iSpace is developing the methane-liquid oxygen Hyperbola-2 launcher.
ispace EU was selected together with ArianeGroup by the European Space Agency to participate in a pilot phase aiming to establish commercial partnerships in Europe for lunar transportation and exploration.
As of May 2022, ispace’s first lunar mission was planned for 2022 with the mission lander undergoing final assembly at an ArianeGroup facility in Germany and slated to launch from the United States on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.
ispace EU opened in March 2017 under a cooperative agreement with the Government of Luxembourg’s SpaceResources.lu initiative to support commercialization of space resource development.
ispace inc. has over 170 staff and maintains offices in Japan, Europe, and the United States.
ispace EU created a lunar yard and associated mission simulation facilities to support development of rover navigation technology.
On 2022-05-02 ispace EU inaugurated a mission control room that will complement ispace’s Mission Control Center in Tokyo, Japan during M1 mission operations.
ispace has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance, a Tokyo-based firm that began working with ispace in 2019, to insure its first attempt to send a lander to the moon.
ispace had raised $200,000,000 as of late October, including an investment from Airbus’ venture capital arm.
ispace plans to ship its lander to Florida by early autumn for launch preparations.