TOKYO - Japanese lunar exploration company ispace has decided that its own landers, which have a bit of a crash-happy track record, might benefit from a ride on SpaceX's Starship. The company announced July 8 that it is developing a Mobile Cargo System - essentially a rover - that will hitch a ride on a Starship lunar lander as soon as 2030 to deliver up to several hundred kilograms of customer payloads.
The Mobile Cargo System will carry payloads from the Starship lander up to a few kilometers away, because why should your expensive scientific equipment have to walk the final mile? ispace will handle payload integration on the ground and operations after landing, because they've had plenty of practice with the ground part.
For the first mission, ispace has purchased 500 kilograms of payload space on a SpaceX Starship lunar lander scheduled to fly no earlier than 2030. Financial details were not disclosed, presumably because ispace is still counting the change from its previous crashed missions.
“High-capacity, relatively low-cost lunar transport, such as that provided by Starship, is essential to realizing the sustainable lunar economy that ispace aims to create,” said Takeshi Hakamada, founder and CEO of ispace, who clearly believes in the old adage: if at first you don't land, try, try, and then try riding someone else's rocket.
The Starship contract is part of ispace's evolution into a “lunar access integrator,” which sounds fancy but basically means they'll take your payload to the moon, possibly in one piece this time. Hakamada said the company decided to pursue the Mobile Cargo System due to customer demand for larger payloads and their own lunar development vision. No payload customers have been announced yet, but the line forms behind the rover.
The 500 kilograms reserved include both the rover and payload mass, with “several hundred kilograms” available for payload. ispace plans to develop the rover internally, leveraging technologies from its European subsidiary, and claims “no technological breakthroughs” are needed - because apparently driving a rover on the moon is the easy part.
Importantly, ispace emphasized that the Mobile Cargo System is in addition to, not instead of, its own landers - which have a 0% success rate so far. Its first two lander missions, in April 2023 and June 2025, crashed. But hey, third time's the charm, right?
In March, ispace unveiled a new lander design called Ultra, unifying designs from its Japanese and U.S. units. Three Ultra lander missions are planned between 2028 and 2030, with the first two built in Japan and the third in the U.S. for a NASA CLPS mission led by Draper.
Hakamada said the Mobile Cargo System could serve demand for the NASA-led lunar base initiative announced in March. ispace is also considering expanding the system to carry payloads over one ton. Because if you're going to crash, crash big.
Since ispace is one of several customers on the Starship lander, SpaceX will select the landing site - likely the lunar south polar region, where NASA wants to build its base. The agreement extends a business relationship that saw SpaceX launch ispace's first two lander missions on Falcon 9.
“Having previously flown multiple ispace missions to the moon aboard Falcon 9, we’re excited to expand this relationship to Starship,” said Stephanie Bednarek, VP of commercial sales at SpaceX, in a statement that diplomatically avoided mentioning the crashes.