MVA Moon Market Annual Award 2026 – Announcement of Nominees
MVA Moon Market Annual Award 2026 4th edition
“2026 Bangkok Special East-Asia Edition”
10th MVA W&S 26-27 October 2026 – Bangkok, Thailand
Announcement of Nominees
The 2026 4th edition of the MVA Moon Market Annual Award will be taking place at the occasion of the 10th MVA Workshop & Symposium (W&S) on 26-27 October 2026 in Bangkok, Thailand, with a focus on the Asia-Pacific region.
This year, the MVA Moon Market Annual Award 4th is called the “2026 Bangkok Special East-Asia Edition.” Because there are no lunar-oriented companies within the ASEAN grouping, the pre-selection boils down to 3 countries (Japan, South-Korea, China) and 9 nominees, including 3 potential winners.
List of nominees:
Japan
– ispace Inc. [ https://www.ispace-inc.com/ ]
ispace has several lunar missions planned ahead, and has expanded lunar economic development partnerships. The company recently booked a 500 kg rideshare capacity on a SpaceX Starship mission aimed for 2030 to integrate customer payloads, a game-changer reducing the cost from $1million to $100,000 per kg of payload.
– Gitai japan inc. [ https://gitai.tech/ ]
GITAI specializes in space robotics, designing autonomous robotic arms, microgravity systems, and specialized lunar rovers. Their technology focuses on In-Space Servicing, Assembly, and Manufacturing (ISAM), which is essential for building future infrastructure, execution tasks, and working environments on the lunar surface without relying entirely on human astronauts.
– Takasago Thermal Engineering Co., Ltd. [ http://www.tte-net.co.jp/ ]
Takasago developed a specialized, ultra-compact water electrolyzer designed to withstand extreme lunar environments. The company is actively collaborating with lunar missions to test splitting water ice harvested from the Moon’s surface into hydrogen and oxygen to produce rocket fuel.
South-Korea
– Hanwha Aerospace [ https://www.hanwhaaerospace.com/eng/index.do ]
Hanwha Aerospace secured a major contract with the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) to completely manufacture, assemble, and test the propulsion system – including the main landing engines and attitude control thrusters – for South Korea’s upcoming 2032 Lunar Lander mission. They are also co-developing the next-generation KSLV-III rocket to launch this lander independently.
– Perigee Aerospace [ https://www.perigee.space/ ]
Perigee Aerospace is a fast-rising private rocket startup based in Daejeon, building deep-throttling, pressure-fed liquid engines designed explicitly for lunar lander propulsion systems alongside their Blue Whale 1 microlauncher framework. They actively collaborate with Hanwha Aerospace to develop eco-friendly space propulsion technologies optimized for deep-space transport.
– Hanwha Solutions – Qcells [ https://qcells.com/kr/ ]
With operations across South-Korea, Germany, and the U.S., Qcells has engineered high-efficiency perovskite-silicon tandem solar cells tailored to withstand the Moon’s severe radiation, vacuum, and intense temperature fluctuations. Their solar technology is selected to fly to the lunar surface as part of the STEFF-1 mission in collaboration with NASA, aiming to provide next-generation power infrastructure for future surface outposts.
China
+ CAS Space [ http://en.cas-space.com/ ]
CAS Space is advancing a three-step deep-space strategy, targeting an upcoming launch in the first quarter of 2027 to carry out the company’s first-ever mission to the Moon: CAS Space will place a payload/ satellite into a trans-lunar injection trajectory using its Kinastra-1 / Lixun-1 upper stage.
+ Galactic Energy [ https://www.galactic-energy.cn/index.php/En/List/cid/23]
Following the successful maiden flight of its medium-sized liquid-fueled rocket (Palace One), Galactic Energy is developing its heavy-lift successor, Palace 2. This next-generation rocket is architected to support lunar surface payload delivery and deep-space commercial exploration targeting the Moon and asteroid resources.
+ LandSpace [ https://www.landspace.com/en ]
LandSpace successfully completed complex booster landing operations using its methane-liquid oxygen Zhuque-3 reusable rocket platform. It is now building out the heavy lift capacity required to challenge global launch costs, positioning itself to bid for future heavy commercial payloads bound for the cislunar economy.
Annoucement of Award winners
The annoucement of the 3 Award winners will take place at a special ceremony during the W&S.
The 3 Award winners will be informed in advance, so that they may register to the W&S, and make travel arrangements themselves, or send a Representative, to receive the Award in-person.
