Japanese space company ispace partners with SpaceX for lunar payload transportation, stock surges nearly 20%

Odaily Planet Daily News: Shares of Japanese space exploration company ispace surged nearly 19% on Thursday, marking its biggest single-day gain in six months. This followed the company's announcement of a partnership with SpaceX to use its Starship rocket for lunar payload transportation services. ispace will develop a mobile cargo system capable of transporting customer payloads weighing up to 500 kilograms several kilometers across the lunar surface. The system is expected to be launched by Starship no earlier than 2030, and ispace has already purchased 500 kilograms of payload capacity for this purpose.

Company CEO Takeshi Hakamada stated, "There is significant potential demand for transportation services, and this is precisely the opportunity we want to seize." He also pledged that the company would ensure success in its next landing attempt. Previously, both of ispace's lunar landing attempts ended in failure—one in 2023 due to a software issue and another in 2025 due to a hardware malfunction. According to the company's plan, its next lunar landing mission is scheduled for 2028, with an orbital satellite launch planned for 2027 prior to that. (Jinshi)