Tag: ispace
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NASA Cancels $73M Draper CLPS Lunar Lander CP-12
NASA Cancels Draper’s $73M CLPS Mission — What Happened to CP-12? NASA has terminated a $73 million Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) task order with Draper after successive lander redesigns pushed the projected lunar landing to 2030 or 2031 — six years behind the original 2025 schedule. Of that $73 million, NASA confirmed it paid…
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ispace Partners with Leicester for Lunar Raman Spectrometer Mission
What Does ispace’s Leicester University Partnership Mean for Lunar Science? Japanese lunar company ispace has secured a partnership with the University of Leicester to deploy a Raman spectrometer on a future lunar mission, marking another step in the company’s evolution from pure transportation to integrated lunar services. The collaboration will see Leicester’s Space Research Centre…
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China prepares cargo, crew, and deep space missions, as commercial sector steps towards reusability
China is preparing to launch both cargo and crew missions to its Tiangong space station, as a new cargo freighter is tested in low-Earth orbit and new designs are revealed to expand the orbiting outpost. Celebrating 70 years since the foundation of its space program this year, China is also advancing plans for deep space…
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ISpace Raises $730 Million To Accelerate Reusable Rocket Development
Chinese commercial space company ISpace has raised about 5 billion yuan ($730 million) in a funding round it described as the largest to date for a private aerospace firm in China, as demand for satellite launches surges. The Beijing-based company, formally known as Interstellar Glory Aerospace Science and Technology, said the Series D++ round closed…
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ispace Plans Saudi Arabia Subsidiary to Expand Lunar Partnerships in Middle East
Japanese lunar exploration company ispace said it plans to establish a new subsidiary in Saudi Arabia, expanding its global presence and strengthening ties with partners in the Middle East as activity around the Moon accelerates. The planned entity, to be known as ispace Saudi Arabia, will become the company’s fourth global base after Japan, Europe…
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China prepares to launch uncrewed Shenzhou as maiden launches slip for commercial launch providers
China is preparing to launch an uncrewed Shenzhou spacecraft as its astronauts shuffle missions following damage to the Shenzhou-20 spacecraft, while the Tiangong station prepares to greet its first international visitor in 2026. Meanwhile, commercial launch providers continue to make progress toward maiden launches, though a number have slipped into early next year. Furthermore, a…
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Japan’s ispace and ElevationSpace Plan First Lunar Sample Return Mission
Japanese space exploration firm ispace, inc. said on Sunday it will partner with in-orbit transportation startup ElevationSpace to develop a private lunar mission that would return samples from the Moon, marking a first for the country if successful. The two companies plan to combine ispace’s orbital transport vehicle with ElevationSpace’s reentry capsule technology to enable…
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Launch Roundup: SpaceX to launch Crew-11 to ISS; ISRO and NASA launch new SAR satellite
With 11 launches scheduled worldwide, this week’s launch roundup is among the busiest of 2025 so far. SpaceX is expected to conduct four missions with the workhorse Falcon 9, including the crewed Crew-11 mission to the International Space Station. Blue Origin’s New Shepard took six humans to suborbital space this week. Internationally, the first-ever domestically…
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ispace’s Resilience Lander to Deliver Science, Art, and Lunar Samples Amid Ambitious Growth Plans
ispace’s upcoming lunar lander, Resilience, carries a range of payloads from Japanese companies and a Taiwanese university, including a water electrolyzer, food production experiments, and a deep space radiation study. Among the commercial payloads is a “commemorative alloy plate” from Bandai Namco Research Inc., the research division of the Japanese entertainment company Bandai Namco, with…
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A Japanese lander crashed on the Moon after losing track of its location
A robotic lander developed by a Japanese company named ispace plummeted to the Moon’s surface Thursday, destroying a small rover and several experiments intended to demonstrate how future missions could mine and harvest lunar resources. Ground teams at ispace’s mission control center in Tokyo lost contact with the Resilience lunar lander moments before it was…