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ispace Lunar Lander Selected to Deliver NASA CLPS Payloads to the Far Side of the Moon

25 Jul, 2022

ispace U.S.’s SERIES-2 Lander Will Deploy Two Communications Relay Satellites to Support Far Side Landing

TOKYO — ispace, inc.(ispace) today announced that its subsidiary, ispace technologies U.S., inc. (ispace U.S.) joins a team, led by Draper, that has been awarded $73 million to deliver payloads including two communication relay satellites to lunar orbit as well as a suite of scientific experiments to the lunar surface.

Team Draper, which includes ispace U.S., as well as General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems, and Systima Technologies, a division of Karman Space & Defense, expects to launch and begin operations on the lunar surface in 2025 in fulfillment of the NASA Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) task order CP-12.

“We are proud to serve all of our customers but are particularly pleased to be working with Draper to help deliver NASA payloads to the Moon. We believe it is another step in our vision to develop the cislunar ecosystem,” said Takeshi Hakamada, CEO and Founder of ispace.

“The SERIES-2 lander—from its design stage to launch from the United States—marks a historic step for our office. I am extremely appreciative of our entire team for their hard work.  We are honored to serve our customers with American ingenuity and skill,” said Kyle Acierno, CEO of ispace U.S.

ispace’s SERIES-2 (S2) lander is designed, manufactured, and will be launched from the United States. While the S2 lander leverages lessons learned from the company’s SERIES-1 (S1) lander, it is an evolved platform representing our next generation lander series with increased payload capacity, enhanced capabilities and featuring a modular design to accommodate orbital, stationary or rover payloads. ispace will serve as the lunar lander design agent on Team Draper.

ispace’s S1 lander is currently planned to launch as early as November 2022 on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral, Fla. It is currently undergoing final testing in Germany before being transported to the United States for launch.

ispace has previously received two contracts from NASA for lunar exploration. Under the first contract awarded in 2020, ispace will collect regolith with its lander during its first mission. Under the second contract, ispace EUROPE S.A., a subsidiary of ispace, will use its rover to collect regolith during the company’s second mission, currently planned for 2024. Both missions are part of ispace’s HAKUTO-R program.

●  About ispace (https://ispace-inc.com/)

ispace, inc., a lunar resource development company with the vision, “Expand our Planet. Expand our Future.”, specializes in designing and building lunar landers and rovers. ispace aims to extend the sphere of human life into space and create a sustainable world by providing high-frequency, low-cost transportation services to the Moon. The company has offices in Japan, Luxembourg, and the United States with more than 190 employees worldwide.

●  About ispace technologies, U.S. (https://ispace-inc.com/us/)

Located in Denver, Colorado, ispace U.S. is a subsidiary of ispace. The office, which opened in late 2020, has more than 40 employees and is rapidly growing. It serves as the central location for development of ispace’s SERIES-2 lander, as well as the central location for operations in North America. ispace’s plans to invest and develop robust operations in the U.S. is driven by its objective to partner with The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to further its lunar exploration objectives, such as through the Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative, and other business opportunities. Currently, ispace, through ispace U.S., is involved in a strategic partnership with the Massachusetts-based engineering innovation company, Draper, as part of “Team Draper” to compete in the CLPS program; through this collaboration, ispace would assume the role as a subcontractor and design agent to Draper.

●  About Draper (https://www.draper.com/)

At Draper, we believe exciting things happen when new capabilities are imagined and created. Whether formulating a concept and developing each component to achieve a field-ready prototype or combining existing technologies in new ways, Draper engineers apply multidisciplinary approaches that deliver new capabilities to customers. As a nonprofit engineering innovation company, Draper focuses on the design, development and deployment of advanced technological solutions for the world’s most challenging and important problems. We provide engineering solutions directly to government, industry and academia; work on teams as prime contractor or subcontractor; and participate as a collaborator in consortia. We provide unbiased assessments of technology or systems designed or recommended by other organizations—custom designed, as well as commercial-off-the-shelf.

 

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