ISPACE
ispace EUROPE S.A. (ispace-EUROPE), the Luxembourg-based subsidiary of ispace, inc. (ispace)(TOKYO: 9348) announced today that the flight model of its European designed, manufactured, and assembled lunar micro rover has been completed and is being prepared for delivery to Japan for integration into the HAKUTO-R Mission 2 RESILIENCE lunar lander.
This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240725797700/en/
A photo of the flight model of the TENACIOUS lunar micro rover. (Photo: Business Wire)
The announcement was made today by Julien Lamamy, CEO of ispace-Europe at a press conference in Luxembourg, attended by Lex Delles, Luxembourg’s Minister of the Economy, SME, Energy and Tourism; Tadahiro Matsubara, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Japan in Luxembourg; Mathias Link, Deputy CEO of the Luxembourg Space Agency; and Atsushi Saiki, CRO of ispace, inc.
A TENACIOUS European-built Rover
The lunar micro rover was designed, manufactured, and assembled with co-funding from the Luxembourg Space Agency through a European Space Agency contract with the Luxembourg National Space Programme, LuxIMPULSE.
The lunar micro rover, intended to be lowered to the lunar surface from the RESILIENCE lunar lander and conduct exploration of the area around the landing site, is named TENACIOUS. The name embodies both the human characteristics of the small-in-stature, yet unrelenting enterprise of the rover as well as the ispace-EUROPE team that has been developing it based on the ispace heritage of rover design and manufacturing.
Luxembourg’s Minister of the Economy, SMEs, Energy and Tourism, Lex Delles, commented: “Our ambition is to develop a space sector that is highly integrated with our industries on earth and opens up new market opportunities, both in space and on earth. We are continuously increasing our efforts to establish fruitful collaborations with companies in the sector as well as with our international partners. And ispace is a concrete example of this excellent collaboration. With this micro rover, the very first to be developed and assembled in Luxembourg, ispace is helping to establish Luxembourg as a pioneer in the exploration and use of space resources.”
“I am delighted to witness the completion of the first European rover designed, manufactured and actually going to the Moon, today in Luxembourg,” said Tadahiro Matsubara, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Japan in Luxembourg. “This is a significant step for the Luxembourg government that is actively promoting the industrialization of space resources. We hope ispace's continuous challenge will further deepen the goodwill between Japan and the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg.”
“ispace was one of the very first companies to set up in Luxembourg as part of the SpaceResources.lu initiative and ispace’s vision has always been very much in line with the one of Luxembourg. We would like to congratulate the entire team on this achievement, and on the work that has enabled this fruitful international collaboration between Luxembourg, Japan, and the USA,” said Mathias Link, Deputy CEO of the Luxembourg Space Agency.
“Tenacious perfectly captures the spirit of this small rover, poised to achieve groundbreaking milestones. It is the first lunar rover built in Europe and will be the first to transport European customers to the Moon’s surface and collect space resources under Luxembourg’s 2017 Space Resources Law,” said Julien Lamamy, CEO of ispace-EUROPE.
“As the world’s interest in lunar exploration grows, we are very pleased to contribute, through our European subsidiary, to the development of the European Space Agency and the Luxembourg Space Agency for the future utilization of lunar resources,” said Takeshi Hakamada, Founder and CEO of ispace. “All of us at ispace are dedicated to success as we prepare the RESILIENCE lander and TENACIOUS rover for Mission 2.”
TENACIOUS measures 26 cm tall, 31.5 cm wide, 54 cm long, and weighs approximately 5 kg. Its lightweight frame is made of carbon fiber-reinforced plastics (CFRP) that are able to withstand the rocket launch and other vibrations during transit to the lunar surface.
The lunar micro rover is equipped with a forward-mounted HD camera that can capture images on the lunar surface. The wheels are shaped in such a way so that the rover can traverse lunar regolith in a stable manner. Commands and data will be sent and received from the mission control center via the lander.
HAKUTO-R Mission 2
Mission 2, ispace’s second lunar exploration mission, is expected to launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral, Fla., in Winter 2024. RESILIENCE will deliver commercial and scientific equipment to the lunar surface and is expected to contribute to the NASA-led Artemis program. In addition to operation of its commercial payloads, the mission will include TENACIOUS, which will deploy from the lunar lander and conduct surface exploration including the collection of lunar regolith.
In December 2020, ispace-EUROPE was selected by NASA to acquire regolith from the lunar surface to be purchased by the space agency. Once on the lunar surface, ispace operators plan to use a shovel to collect a sample of lunar regolith and photograph the collection with the camera mounted on the rover.
ispace is leveraging its global presence through its three business units in Japan, the U.S., and Luxembourg, for the simultaneous development of upcoming missions. Mission 2 is led by the ispace Japan entity. Mission 3, debuting the APEX 1.0 lunar lander, is led by the ispace U.S. entity and is expected to launch in 2026. Mission 6, which will utilize the Series 3 lander, currently being designed in Japan, is scheduled to be launched by 2027.
# # #
About ispace, inc. (https://ispace-inc.com)
ispace, a global lunar exploration 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 business entities in Japan, Luxembourg, and the United States with approximately 300 employees worldwide. For more information, visit: www.ispace-inc.com and follow us on X: @ispace_inc.
To view this piece of content from cts.businesswire.com, please give your consent at the top of this page.
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240725797700/en/
About Business Wire
Subscribe to releases from Business Wire
Subscribe to all the latest releases from Business Wire by registering your e-mail address below. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Latest releases from Business Wire
SiPearl: Final closing of €130m Series A with Cathay Venture (Taiwan), EIC Fund and France 20308.7.2025 17:25:00 CEST | Press release
Tape-out of Rhea1, the most complex processor ever designed in Europe which will equip JUPITER, the 1st European exascale supercomputer Largest Series A in the European fabless semiconductor industry including €32m in new funding to close Series A and prepare the launch of Series B Strengthening ties with Taiwan’s semiconductor ecosystem to complement Europe’s sovereignty in supercomputing and AI SiPearl, the company building European high-performance energy-efficient processors for supercomputing and AI has achieved the definitive closing of its €130m Series A with a third tranche of €32m. Seed funded by the European Union, SiPearl was launched in January 2020 under the auspices of the European Processor Initiative consortium which aims to foster the return of high-performance energy-efficient processor technologies in Europe. Since then, the company has fulfilled its mission by building a world-class processor team of 200 employees in France, Spain, and Italy, set up its own sovereig
LambdaTest Unveils Smart Branching and Baseline Management to Modernize Visual Testing Workflows8.7.2025 17:00:00 CEST | Press release
SmartUI now aligns visual testing with real-world development practices, eliminating baseline confusion and making visual QA effortless across teams LambdaTest, a GenAI-powered quality engineering platform, has announced the release of SmartUI’sSmart Branching and Baseline Management, a major leap forward in visual testing. This update eliminates long-standing bottlenecks caused by outdated baseline strategies and introduces an intelligent, streamlined way for development teams to manage visual testing across complex Git workflows. Modern development teams utilise feature branches, release versions, and hotfix workflows; however, most visual testing tools still rely on comparisons against the main branch, resulting in irrelevant failures and time-consuming approvals. LambdaTest’s SmartUI changes that with features purpose-built for today’s branching strategies. Smart Branch Comparison ensures visual tests are run against the correct baseline, comparing within the same feature branch in
Connectivity as Versatile as the Aircraft, Starlink High-Speed Internet Now Available for Cessna Caravan8.7.2025 16:00:00 CEST | Press release
Textron Aviation Inc., a Textron Inc. (NYSE: TXT) company, today announced an additional high-speed internet connectivity solution for the Cessna Citation Caravan following the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) issuance of AeroMech’s Supplemental Type Certificate (STC) for Starlink high-speed internet connectivity. AeroMech’s STC utilizes Starlink’s constellation of Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites to provide more reliable connectivity over land, water and remote areas, where traditional in-flight Wi-Fi may not have service. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250708514119/en/ Textron Aviation announced an additional high-speed internet connectivity solution for the Cessna Citation Caravan following the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) issuance of AeroMech’s Supplemental Type Certificate (STC) for Starlink high-speed internet connectivity. (Photo: Textron Aviation) “The Cessna Caravan is so versatile,
Rigaku Announces STAvesta, a Thermal Analyzer Tailor-made for Next-generation Material Development8.7.2025 16:00:00 CEST | Press release
Supports a wide range of users from novices to experts, serving a wide variety of needs Rigaku Corporation, a Group company of Rigaku Holdings Corporation (headquarters: Akishima, Tokyo; CEO: Jun Kawakami; hereinafter “Rigaku”) has launched worldwide sales of STAvesta, a thermal analyzer that simultaneously measures a sample’s weight and change in calorific value during heating. STAvesta responds to needs in a wide array of fields where thermal analysis is required. It is expected to find use in a wide variety of material-analysis applications for the development of advanced features and complex materials. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250708207135/en/ STAvesta FlatBlank, a Revolutionary Auto-adjustment Feature, Dramatically Reduces Workload In conventional thermal analysis, baseline adjustment must be performed by hand before measurement can begin. This process can be time-consuming and frustrating, particu
Institutional Real Estate, Inc. Appoints Doris Holinaty as Managing Director – Global Markets8.7.2025 16:00:00 CEST | Press release
Institutional Real Estate, Inc. (“IREI”), the 38-year-old independent publisher of news and analysis for the institutional real estate investment community, today announced the appointment of Doris Holinaty as Managing Director – Global Markets. In this pivotal new role, Holinaty will be responsible for expanding IREI’s global footprint across its existing platforms and will spearhead business development for The Property Chronicle and The Green Chronicle, following IREI’s recent acquisition of Lyndon Publishing. Holinaty brings more than two decades of experience in selling and servicing publication and event sponsorships, including branding and strategic marketing for both print and digital communications media. “We are thrilled to welcome Doris to the IREI team. Her business values, experience and dynamic energy perfectly align with our values and our strategic vision to expand client servicing efforts in global markets,” said Tom Parker, Executive Vice President and Publisher of IR
In our pressroom you can read all our latest releases, find our press contacts, images, documents and other relevant information about us.
Visit our pressroom