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.
iSpace raised $729 million (5 billion yuan) in a D++ series funding round.
iSpace secured D++ round funding of 5 billion rmb.
ispace and Daimon signed a basic agreement on January 30, 2026 to study development of a payload transport box for mounting on lunar landers.
Daimon and ispace will jointly pursue realization of a transport box that safely delivers small payloads to the lunar surface and enables their deployment on the Moon.
ispace, headquartered in Chuo City, Tokyo, and Daimon, headquartered in Chuo City, Tokyo, signed a basic agreement on January 30 to study development of a payload transport box for lunar landers.
Daimon will provide a deployment system that is transported to the lunar surface by ispace’s lunar lander to enable release of small payloads.
ispace will use Daimon’s deployment system on an ispace-developed lander to transport the deployment system and enable release of small lunar surface payloads.
iSpace conducted a TE rehearsal with the Pad-2 of Wencheng commercial.
ispace will examine interface compatibility between the payload transport box and its lunar lander.
iSpace conducted a TE rehearsal with Pad-2 of Wencheng commercial on January 28, 2026.
ispace will receive funding for up to 5 years, with a maximum ceiling of ¥20 billion (approximately $126.4 million) to advance the technological development of the project.
ispace was selected to implement its proposal for the 'High Precision Landing Technology in the Lunar Polar Regions' project under Japan’s Space Strategy Fund.
With the new selection, ispace will develop a lunar lander derived from the Series 3 lunar lander for stable, high-precision landings near the lunar south pole, with Mission 6 scheduled for 2029.
ispace is developing the Series 3 Lunar Lander, which is scheduled for launch on Mission 4 and funded through a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant from Japan’s METI.
ispace plans to deploy a communication relay satellite into lunar orbit during Mission 6, which will remain operational after the mission concludes.
The technology will be implemented in ispace’s Mission 6, with development currently underway.
ispace plans to utilize lunar water resources to enable in-space fuel provision and thereby reduce rocket transportation costs.
ispace aims to build an economic sphere from Earth to the Moon and is pursuing commercial missions to enable high-frequency lunar transport.
The results of ispace's analysis will be provided to JAXA to support refinement of guidelines on space debris mitigation in lunar orbit and disposal management on the Moon.
ispace has been tasked to examine the practical effectiveness of draft recommendations on lunar debris mitigation and disposal management from the perspective of a commercial mission operator.