Japanese lunar transport company ispace announced on Wednesday (July 8th) local time that it will launch a new low-cost lunar cargo business based on Elon Musk's SpaceX Starship Heavy Launch Vehicle and lunar lander.
This Tokyo based company stated that it has invested $50 million (equivalent to approximately RMB 340 million at the current exchange rate) to reserve a 500 kilogram payload for a starship, which is expected to land on the moon as early as 2030; The company will also develop a lunar transport vehicle that can carry payloads from customers around the world, allowing all parties to share the lunar transport capacity of the starship.
Hideari Kamiya, Managing Director of ispace, stated that this new "Moon Shuttle" service is equivalent to a dedicated "shuttle" for moon landing, which can complement the company's current self-developed dedicated lunar lander (i.e. the "special vehicle" for moon landing).
Previously, ISPACE used SpaceX Falcon 9 rockets for two lunar exploration missions, attempting to land on the moon in 2023 and 2025 respectively, but both landings were declared unsuccessful.
This Tokyo based company currently plans to achieve soft landing on the moon with three landers named "Ultra" by 2030, one of which is part of NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services program.
The company's president Takeshi Hakamada stated that while advancing the Extreme series of lunar missions, the cooperation with SpaceX will exponentially increase the company's development speed in the lunar infrastructure market.
SpaceX welcomes the expansion of cooperation between the two parties to Starship missions. Starship is a reusable transportation system that, unlike Falcon 9, can carry a manned module. Musk's company plans to use it to achieve moon landing and, in the long run, also carry out Mars missions.
Stephanie Bednarek, Vice President of Commercial Sales at SpaceX, stated in a statement that "ispace's integrated shuttle services provide a highly valuable channel for small payloads to successfully travel to the moon today. We look forward to continuing to assist ispace and its customers in expanding the ways for humans to land on the lunar surface. ”
This collaboration is not an exclusive partnership. NASA plans to complete the first lunar landing using a starship in 2028, as part of the Artemis manned lunar program, to enable astronauts to return to the moon; Astrolab, a start-up company for lunar exploration vehicles in the United States, has also reserved space for subsequent starship flights.
Takeshi Hakamada revealed that it was SpaceX who took the initiative to approach us and proposed the concept of cooperation for this integrated shuttle service. We cannot rule out the possibility of other companies entering this market, but few companies are able to coordinate and integrate freight loads, and continue to provide supporting landing services after successfully landing on the moon. ”
