The new agreement expands upon the previous cooperation between ispace and Telespazio, originally built on their initial 2025 letter of intent, including the possibility to explore Leonardo’s space division capabilities in space robotics and AI applied to space exploration, as well as by broadening the scope of collaboration with additional strategic areas like interoperability, user access and service provision to expand lunar communications, navigation and transportation services.
The partnership will advance interoperability of lunar infrastructure and services to support global lunar exploration and explore ispace’s lunar transportation capabilities, with the European Space Agency’s Moonlight program led by Telespazio, part of Leonardo Group, being the first to implement it.
“Through this collaboration with Telespazio and Leonardo, we are bringing together complementary capabilities in transportation, communications and navigation to help build the foundations of a sustainable cislunar economy,” said Takeshi Hakamada, founder and CEO of ispace.
“We are proud to work alongside leading European partners to advance the infrastructure that will support the next generation of lunar missions.”
Together, the parties will evaluate how integrated service offerings could provide expanded communications coverage on the lunar surface and to lunar orbit, expanded navigation capabilities, increased data capacity, and improved resilience for future lunar missions.
The MOU also includes exploring the potential transportation of Moonlight satellites to lunar orbit by ispace’s orbital transfer vehicle.
The inclusion of both ispace’s Japanese and European entities, alongside the international excellence of Leonardo and Telespazio, brings together complementary strengths from across Europe and Japan.
“The agreement with ispace marks a further step towards the development of an always more integrated and interoperable infrastructure capable of supporting the growing number of missions to the moon,” said Massimo Claudio Comparini, managing director of Leonardo space division.
“By bringing together complementary capabilities in communications, navigation and lunar transportation, robotics and AI, Leonardo, together with Telespazio and Thales Alenia Space, is contributing to the development of the services and technologies that will enable a sustained presence in the lunar environment, supporting the evolution of a global and interconnected cislunar ecosystem.”
As global lunar exploration transitions from individual missions to a sustained operational ecosystem, communications, navigation and transportation infrastructure are increasingly recognised as critical enablers of scientific, commercial and governmental activities on the lunar surface and in lunar orbit. The parties believe that collaboration and interoperability will be essential to creating a resilient lunar ecosystem.
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