In a milestone for Taiwan's growing space ambitions, Japanese space startup ispace announced it has been selected by the Taiwan Space Agency (TASA) to transport scientific instruments to the lunar surface aboard its 2028 mission.
Under a contract valued at US$8 million, ispace will carry Taiwan's Vector Magnetometer and Ultraviolet Telescope as part of its fourth lunar mission, Mission 4, scheduled for launch in 2028. The agreement, announced in early October 2025, marks a deepening collaboration between Japan's private space sector and Taiwan's national space program.
The two sides had previously signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) in December 2024 to explore future lunar partnerships, laying the groundwork for joint missions and long-term cooperation in deep space exploration.
A continued partnership
This is not the first collaboration between ispace and Taiwan. During Mission 2, launched in January 2025, ispace's lunar lander Resilience carried the Deep Space Radiation Probe (DSRP), developed by Taiwan's National Central University. The probe gathered valuable data on radiation exposure during lunar transit—critical for future crewed or robotic missions.
ispace highlighted the DSRP experiment as a successful example of trilateral cooperation between academia, government, and industry across Japan and Taiwan.
Aiming for the Moon—and beyond
Founded in 2010, ispace is one of Asia's leading private aerospace firms. Headquartered in Tokyo, with additional offices in Luxembourg and the United States, the company is developing a fleet of small lunar landers and rovers aimed at providing frequent, low-cost delivery services to the Moon.
While its first two missions—Mission 1 (2022) and Mission 2 (2025)—did not achieve soft landings, they demonstrated the company's robust capabilities in lunar orbit insertion, spacecraft guidance, and attitude control systems. These technical milestones have laid the foundation for future missions.
ispace's next flight, Mission 3, is slated for 2027 and will be led by its US subsidiary. That mission is designed to support NASA's Artemis Program, part of a broader effort to enable sustainable lunar exploration. It will incorporate lessons learned from the company's earlier attempts and refine precision landing capabilities.
Mission 4: A multinational scientific endeavor
Mission 4, scheduled for 2028, will mark the debut of ispace's newly developed Series 3 lunar lander, backed in part by funding from Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) through its Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program. The lander will host at least two payloads:
The first, a Japan-led payload funded by the Space Strategy Fund (SSF), will focus on lunar water resource exploration—a priority area in the global race to develop sustainable lunar infrastructure.
The second payload is Taiwan's magnetometer and ultraviolet telescope, designed to gather environmental and astrophysical data from the Moon's surface.
Together, the experiments reflect a growing trend in international lunar missions: scientific collaboration meets commercial space logistics, with ispace positioning itself as a bridge between governments, researchers, and the emerging lunar economy.
As global interest in the Moon intensifies—from water mining to scientific research—Taiwan's selection of a Japanese startup underscores the shifting dynamics of the new space race, where agile private companies play a central role in enabling cross-border exploration.
Article edited by Jerry Chen
