ispace Europe, ArianeGroup and ESA to Assess Commercial Partnership for Lunar Transportation Services

LUXEMBOURG, December 10 (ispace PR) – ispace Europe (ispace EU), the European subsidiary of ispace, inc., and ArianeGroup have been selected by the European Space Agency (ESA) to participate in a pilot phase aiming to establish commercial partnerships in Europe for lunar transportation and exploration. ESA Director General, Josef Aschbacher, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on Wednesday, November 24, with ispace EU and ArianeGroup. This marks the official start of the pilot phase.

During this phase, the ispace EU-ArianeGroup partnership will undertake business, technical and socio-economic evaluations of their lunar transportation service, which will ultimately be presented to an ESA evaluation panel; the companies are seeking a decision from ESA by Summer 2022. If endorsed by the Panel and further confirmed by ESA Member States, ispace EU and ArianeGroup could become a vetted candidate to transport ESA payloads to the Moon.

Under the terms of the MOU, ispace EU intends to provide over 15 kg of lander payload capacity or 5 kg of rover capacity to ESA on its lunar lander for future lunar missions from 2024 onwards. The mission would be based on the Arianespace lunar rideshare ‘Highway to the Moon’ launch service using Ariane 6. ArianeGroup would support ispace EU through its mission assurance activities and leverage its experience in qualifying space transportation systems.

Building upon an already strong partnership between ispace EU and ArianeGroup, this collaboration further demonstrates the intention for ispace EU and ArianeGroup to continuously identify opportunities to cooperate on lunar exploration efforts that meet the needs of the European market. Currently, ArianeGroup is supplying key propulsion components for ispace’s Series 1 lunar lander, which is planned for launch on its first mission in the second half of 2022[i]. The lander is currently undergoing final assembly, integration and testing in collaboration with ArianeGroup in Lampoldshausen, Germany.