Japanese aerospace company com. ispace The company has invested more than $40 million in its new US subsidiary so far, as it looks to capitalize on increased investment from NASA and the Pentagon in lunar technologies.
The level of investment is a sign of ispace’s “strong commitment to the US market,” CEO Takeshi Hakamada said in a statement.
“We expect this number to continue to grow as part of our strategic commitment to contribute to government missions and create a lunar ecosystem from the United States,” he added.
The US subsidiary, called ispace Technologies US, employs more than eighty people from Denver, Colorado. Ronald J. Garan, a former NASA astronaut and senior vice president of World View, was appointed CEO of the US company in June.
ispace also unveiled a new lander called Apex 1.0, which will replace the previous lander version, Series 2. Apex 1.0 is designed for short-course flights to the Moon and will be able to carry up to 300 kilograms to the lunar surface. . This represents a 10-fold increase in capacity compared to ispace’s first lander, Series 1.
Apex 1.0 will be launched on ispace’s third mission, which will be conducted in partnership with Draper Laboratory to deliver payloads to the far side of the Moon for NASA. Draper and ispace, along with General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems, and Systima Technologies, a division of Karman Space & Defense, were awarded a $73 million contract last summer. ispace said the mission date was moved back from 2025 to 2026 in part due to the transition from the Series 2 lander design to Apex 1.0.
The Draper team, as the consortium is called, is one of several companies that have won contracts under NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program. Firefly Aerospace, Intuitive Machines, and Astrobotic have also won awards under this program, and are all vying to be the first companies to land a commercial lander on the moon.
“The updated schedule enables the Draper and ispace-US team to accommodate sensitive payloads by harnessing Apex 1.0 capabilities optimized for Mission 3, which targets a technically challenging landing site on the far side of the Moon,” the company explained in a statement. .
The new lander will have more than ten times the capacity of ispace’s first lander, Series 1, which suffered a devastating impact on the lunar surface in April.