ispace Launches New Lunar Cargo Service with SpaceX's Starship

Japanese lunar transportation company ispace announced that it will launch a new, lower-cost lunar cargo service using SpaceX's giant Starship rocket. The new model will bring the "shared journey" logic to space by bringing together small payloads to be sent from the Earth to the Moon in a single mission.

Japanese lunar transportation company ispace purchased the 500 kilogram capacity on Starship for $50 million. According to plans, this capacity will be used for a Starship mission that will land on the Moon surface in 2030 at the earliest.

ispace's new service is defined as "lunar access integrator". The company positions this model as a kind of “bus” service to the Moon. Customers from different countries and companies will be able to send their own payloads to the Moon within the scope of the same mission.

This approach will complement the dedicated lunar landers that ispace is already developing. While company executives liken existing landers more like a “taxi” service, the new Starship collaboration will offer a larger, shared transportation model.

STARSHIP DIFFERENCE

SpaceX's Starship system, unlike Falcon 9, is being developed not only as a rocket, but also as a reusable spacecraft planned to land on the Moon and Mars in the future. Therefore, for ispace, Starship opens a new door not only in terms of launch capacity but also in terms of access to the lunar surface.

ispace previously used SpaceX's Falcon 9 rockets in Moon landing attempts in 2023 and 2025. However, neither mission resulted in a successful soft landing.

2030 TARGET

The company aims to land three lunar landers, called Ultra, on the surface by 2030. One of these missions will be carried out under NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services program.

ispace CEO Takeshi Hakamada said that the expanded collaboration with SpaceX will significantly accelerate the company's growth in the lunar infrastructure market. Hakamada also stated that this business idea first came from SpaceX.

DOOR FOR SMALL LOADS

SpaceX also welcomed the cooperation. Stephanie Bednarek, the company's vice president of commercial sales, said ispace's integration services offer a valuable path for small payloads to reach the Moon.

The new system could be particularly important for companies, research institutions and technology developers who would not be able to fund a large Moon mission on their own. Thus, small robots, scientific devices, communication systems or experimental technologies can be transported to the Moon with the same Starship mission.

MOON ECONOMY IS GROWING

The agreement between ispace and SpaceX does not constitute an exclusive partnership. NASA plans to use Starship to take astronauts back to the Moon as part of the Artemis program. US lunar rover startup Astrolab has also booked a place on a future Starship flight.