ispace

ispace, inc. is a Japanese commercial lunar exploration company founded in 2010 by Takeshi Hakamada, headquartered in Tokyo, developing lunar landers and rovers to establish a sustained human presence on the Moon by enabling commercial lunar resource utilization. The company raised over $90 million USD — including backing from JAFCO, Innovation Network Corporation of Japan, and other investors — and participated in Google Lunar XPRIZE with Team HAKUTO. ispace's Mission 1 lunar lander launched on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rideshare in December 2022 and reached lunar orbit in April 2023, but the RESILIENCE lander crashed during its final descent. ispace is developing Mission 2 (a landing attempt with a redesigned lander) and Mission 3 in collaboration with Draper. The company has also established ispace Europe (Luxembourg) and ispace US (Colorado), and is a key player in NASA's CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) program for delivering payloads to the Moon.