ispace Inc. is a

publicly traded A public company is a company whose ownership is organized via shares of share capital, stock which are intended to be freely traded on a stock exchange or in over-the-counter (finance), over-the-counter markets. A public (publicly traded) co ...

Japanese company developing

robotic spacecraft Uncrewed spacecraft or robotic spacecraft are spacecraft without people on board. Uncrewed spacecraft may have varying levels of autonomy from human input, such as remote control, or remote guidance. They may also be autonomous, in which t ...

and other technology to compete for both transportation and exploration mission contracts from space agencies and other private industries. ispace's mission is to enable its clients to discover, map, and use natural

lunar resources An artificially colored mosaic constructed from a series of 53 images taken through three spectral filters by ''Galileo's'' imaging system as the spacecraft flew over the northern regions of the Moon on 7 December 1992. The colors indicate d ...

. From 2013 to 2018, ispace was the owner and operator of the

Hakuto Announcement: New Team Na ...

team that competed in

Google Lunar X Prize The Google Lunar X Prize (GLXP) was a 2007–2018 inducement prize space competition organized by the X Prize Foundation, and sponsored by Google. The challenge called for privately funded teams to be the first to land a lunar rover on t ...

(GLXP). The team developed a lunar rover named ''Sorato''. ispace is headquartered in

Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

, with offices in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

and

Luxembourg Luxembourg, officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, is a landlocked country in Western Europe. It is bordered by Belgium to the west and north, Germany to the east, and France on the south. Its capital and most populous city, Luxembour ...

.Luxembourg and ispace, a Tokyo-Based Lunar Robotic ExplorationCompany, Sign MoU to Co-Operate within the Spaceresources.lu Initiative
''Business Wire'' Released by the Luxembourg Ministry of the Economy 2 March 2017 The company's founder and CEO is Takeshi Hakamada. ispace's Hakuto-R program, supported by Japanese funding and partnered with American

Draper Laboratory Draper Laboratory is an American non-profit research and development organization, headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts; its official name is The Charles Stark Draper Laboratory, Inc. The laboratory specializes in the design, development, an ...

, aims to offer lunar transport and exploration.

Hakuto-R Mission 1 Hakuto-R Mission 1 was a failed private Japanese uncrewed lunar landing mission built and operated by ispace, which was launched in December 2022 for an attempted lunar landing in April 2023. This first Hakuto mission was primarily a technolog ...

, launched in December 2022 carrying the ''Rashid'' rover, failed during its April 2023 landing attempt.

Hakuto-R Mission 2 Hakuto-R Mission 2, also called ''Resilience'', was a robotic Moon landing , lunar landing mission launched on 15 January 2025. Developed by the Japanese company Ispace (Japanese company), ispace, the lander was intended to deliver a small Rover ...

, launched in January 2025 with the RESILIENCE lander and a

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...

"memory disk," also failed to establish communication after its attempted landing in June 2025, suggesting a

hard landing A hard landing occurs when an aircraft or spacecraft hits the ground with a greater vertical speed and force than in a normal landing. The terms ''hard landing'' and ''firm landing'' are often confused though are inherently different. A hard la ...

. Future missions, starting with Hakuto-R Mission 3 in 2026, will focus on establishing high-frequency, cost-effective lunar transport and lunar water resource development.

History

Water Detected at High Latitudes on the Moon

Although ispace later became independent, it began as a partner of a European organization called White Label Space. White Label Space (WLS) was an international team of space engineers that was founded in 2008 to compete in the

, for a grand prize of US$20 million to send a spacecraft to the Moon's surface, and have it travel 500 meters. WLS was headquartered in the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

and led by Steve Allen. The European side aimed to develop the team's

lunar lander A lunar lander or Moon lander is a Lander (spacecraft), spacecraft designed to Moon landing, land on the surface of the Moon. As of 2024, the Apollo Lunar Module is the only lunar lander to have ever been used in human spaceflight, completing s ...

while the Japanese group consisting of

Tohoku University is a public research university in Sendai, Miyagi, Japan. It is colloquially referred to as or . Established in 1907 as the third of the Imperial Universities, after the University of Tokyo and Kyoto University, it initially focused on sc ...

Space Robotics Lab and led by Kazuya Yoshida was to develop a rover. In 2010, White Label Space Japan LLC, the predecessor of ispace was founded by Takeshi Hakamada to manage the commercial and technical aspect of the Japanese group. On 30 January 2013, when the European teammates ceased substantial involvement in the prize, the Japan-based members decided to continue the work, and WLS transferred the GLXP participation right to White Label Space Japan LLC. Steve Allen, WLS's leader was succeeded by Takeshi Hakamada. In May 2013, the team's parent company, White Label Space Japan changed its name to ispace, while the GLXP team was renamed "Hakuto" on 15 July of the same year. Team Hakuto did not succeed in undertaking a lunar mission during the GLXP, but following the cessation of the competition, ispace continued its lunar exploration plans and, in 2018, the company succeeded in raising over US$90 million in private funding to develop its own lunar lander in addition to continuing its work on lunar rovers. By September 2018, ispace planned to test their systems by orbiting around the Moon but not land on it. The company signed up for two launches on

SpaceX Space Exploration Technologies Corp., commonly referred to as SpaceX, is an America, American space technology company headquartered at the SpaceX Starbase, Starbase development site in Starbase, Texas. Since its founding in 2002, the compa ...

Falcon 9 Falcon 9 is a Reusable launch system#Partial reusable launch systems, partially reusable, two-stage-to-orbit, medium-lift launch vehicle designed and manufactured in the United States by SpaceX. The first Falcon 9 launch was on June 4, 2010, an ...

rockets, to take place in 2020 and 2021. On 10 October 2018, an industry team formed by

, along with ispace,

General Atomics General Atomics (GA) is an American energy and defense corporation headquartered in San Diego, California, that specializes in research and technology development. This includes physics research in support of nuclear fission and nuclear fusion en ...

, and

Spaceflight Industries Spaceflight Industries, Inc. is an American private aerospace company based out of Herndon, Virginia, that specializes in geospatial intelligence services. It sold its satellite rideshare business, Spaceflight, Inc., in June 2020. Spacefli ...

submitted a proposal for a commercial lunar lander to

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

Commercial Lunar Payload Services Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) is a NASA program to hire companies to send small robotic landers and rovers to the Moon. Most landing sites are near the lunar south pole where they will scout for lunar resources, test in situ resource ...

Program. According to Draper, ispace will serve as the team's design agent. As of 2019, ispace was developing a mission concept called ''Polar Ice Explorer'' that could prospect for

on a region near the

lunar south pole The lunar south pole is the southernmost point on the Moon. It is of interest to scientists because of the lunar water, occurrence of water ice in Crater of eternal darkness, permanently shadowed areas around it. The lunar south pole region fea ...

. On 21 July 2022, NASA announced that it had awarded a CLPS contract to Draper Laboratories and the team.

Hakuto-R program

The long-term strategy of ispace is to build landers and rovers to compete for both transportation and exploration mission contracts from space agencies and private industry. NASA aims at contracting private industries to scout and mine

lunar water The search for the presence of lunar water has attracted considerable attention and motivated several recent lunar missions, largely because of water's usefulness in making long-term lunar habitation feasible. The Moon is believed to be genera ...

and other

to support a future Moon-based infrastructure.They want moon landings to be a commercial reality — and that's just the start
Time Romero, ''Tech in Asia'' August 2018 The funding for the first two missions was originally secured from a consortium of Japanese funds and companies. In 2018, ispace signed a working agreement with Draper to serve as the team's design agent, which brought about significant changes. In August 2019, ispace announced a restructuring of its lunar program, now called Hakuto-R, in light of rapid increases in customer demand for payload delivery services in the lunar exploration industry, especially from the recent

(CLPS) contract awarded to Draper and its partners, including ispace. A significant change was the elimination of the technology demonstration orbiter mission in 2020 in favor of moving more quickly toward a demonstration of landing capabilities.

Hakuto-R Mission 1

is a lunar lander carrying the Emirates Lunar Mission rover ''Rashid'' in a partnership with the

Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre The Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC, ) is a Government of Dubai, Dubai Government organization working on the UAE space program, which includes various Satellite, space satellites projects, such as the Emirates Mars Mission, the Emirates ...

(MBRSC), along with

Tomy (trade name, trading as Takara Tomy in Asia and Tomy elsewhere) is a Japanese toy company. It was established in 1924 by Eiichirō Tomiyama as , became known for creating popular toys like the B-29 friction toy and luck-based game Pop-up Pi ...

and

JAXA The is the Japanese national air and space agency. Through the merger of three previously independent organizations, JAXA was formed on 1 October 2003. JAXA is responsible for research, technology development and launch of satellites into o ...

Sora-Q Sora-Q is a miniature Lunar rover designed and made by Japanese space agency JAXA, toy manufacturer Tomy, Sony, and Doshisha University. It was launched to the Moon first on the failed Hakuto-R Mission 1 in 2022, and on 2023 Smart Lander for In ...

transformable lunar robot. Hakuto-R Mission 1 houses another payload, that is, a music disc featuring the song ‘SORATO’ by the Japanese rock band

Sakanaction are a Japanese rock band from Sapporo, Hokkaido. Their music is a fusion of alternative rock, electronic, pop, and new wave styles. The band consists of five members: Ichiro Yamaguchi, Motoharu Iwadera, Ami Kusakari, Emi Okazaki, and Keiichi ...

. The song was initially released in 2018 as a part of the Team

Hakuto Announcement: New Team Na ...

campaign for the Google Lunar XPRIZE. Hakuto-R Mission 1 was launched on 11 December 2022 at 07:38 UTC on a

Falcon 9 Block 5 Falcon 9 Block 5 is a Reusable launch system#Partial reusable launch systems, partially reusable, human-rating certification, human-rated, two-stage-to-orbit, medium-lift launch vehicle designed and manufactured in the United States by SpaceX. I ...

rocket, along with Emirates Lunar Mission and NASA's Lunar Flashlight spacecraft. The mission entered lunar orbit on 21 March 2023 with a lunar landing attempt scheduled for 25 April 2023. Communication with Hakuto-R was lost during the final moments of descent to the lunar surface on 25 April. Analysis determined that a loss of propellant in the final stage of landing led to a rapid descent and hard landing on the lunar surface.

Hakuto-R Mission 2

Hakuto-R Mission 2, carrying the RESILIENCE lunar lander and micro rover called "TENACIOUS", was launched on 15 January 2025. In partnership with

, ispace delivered a "memory disk" containing 275 languages and other cultural artifacts, aiming to preserve a piece of humanity alive in case of a future threat to humankind's existence on Earth. In June 2024, the company reported that the mission was on track for launch in late 2024, with completion of vacuum testing of the lander with actual launch in January 2025. Landing was expected in

Mare Frigoris Mare Frigoris (Latin ''frīgōris'', the "Sea of Cold") is a lunar mare in the far north of the Moon. It is located in the outer rings of the Procellarum basin, just north of Mare Imbrium, and stretches east to north of Mare Serenitatis. It is j ...

around 6 June 2025. The mission was scheduled to land on Thursday, 5 June 2025, at 19:17

UTC Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) is the primary time standard globally used to regulate clocks and time. It establishes a reference for the current time, forming the basis for civil time and time zones. UTC facilitates international communica ...

, assuming the primary landing spot in the middle of Mare Frigoris was chosen. If ispace decided to use one of the three backup landing sites, those attempts would occur on different times. On 5 June 2025, the lander failed to complete its landing, impacting the lunar surface.

Mission 3 and beyond

The ispace Mission 3, delivering the APEX 1.0 lunar lander to Schrödinger Basin on the

far side of the Moon The far side of the Moon is the hemisphere of the Moon that is facing away from Earth, the opposite hemisphere is the near side. It always has the same surface oriented away from Earth because of synchronous rotation in the Moon's orbit. C ...

, is expected to launch in 2026. Missions 3 through 9 aim to establish ispace's lunar lander as a high-frequency cost-effective transportation system, while Mission 10 and beyond will begin the construction of an "industrial platform" to enable the development of

resources. The European Space Agency (ESA) has contracted ispace to develop the Mission for Advanced Geophysics and Polar Ice Exploration (MAGPIE), the first ESA-led surface mission on the Moon.

References

External links

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White Label Space Japan
{{Lunar rovers Companies based in Tokyo Private spaceflight companies Spacecraft manufacturers Google Lunar X Prize Robotics companies of Japan Japanese brands Aerospace companies of Japan Companies listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange