JAL Group Signs Collaboration Agreement with ispace for Lunar Transportation and Operations
- Joe Breitfeller
- Dec 1
- 3 min read
Japan Airlines has announced that JAL Group has signed a new collaboration agreement with ispace for Lunar Transportation and operations, with a specific focus on the development of the cislunar economy.
On Monday (December 1, 2025), Japan Airlines Group (Japan Airlines, JAL Engineering and JALUX announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with ispace, a global lunar exploration company, to collaborate on building transportation systems and infrastructure to support sustainable future activities on the Moon. Signed on Nov. 28, 2025, the agreement includes JALUX, the JAL Group’s trading company, and outlines an effort to accelerate discussions to build the cislunar economy to connect the Earth and the Moon.
JAL has supported Team HAKUTO dating back to the Google Lunar XPrize, and more recently served as a corporate partner to ispace’s HAKUTO-R lunar exploration program. As a corporate partner, the company contributed to the development of components for ispace's lunar landers used during Mission 1 and Mission 2, as well as its rovers. The partnership has involved air transport of ispace’s lunar lander components and rover, as well as technical support provided by JALEC, including welding of fuel lines, assembly, and testing.
In Monday’s announcement, ispace’s Founder and CEO, Takeshi Hakamada, said,
“We are encouraged to advance collaborative discussions with the JAL Group members regarding future lunar transportation and operations. By combining the safety and quality expertise cultivated in commercial aviation with ispace's experience, we will create new experiential value and drive its societal implementation toward realizing the cislunar economy.”
Also commenting on the new lunar collaboration, Japan Airlines’ SVP – Takao Suzuki, said,
“The JAL Group has supported ispace’s endeavors for over a decade. With the signing of this agreement, we will deepen our collaboration toward building a new economic sphere connecting Earth and the Moon. Together with ispace’s vision of ‘making Japan a country that is unafraid to fail,’ in order to advance we will challenge ourselves to create new value in space transportation. Together, into space.”
Further speaking on the ispace partnership, JAL Engineering’s VP – Marketing & Sales, Hiroki Haraikawa, said,
“Our technical support for HAKUTO-R has deepened our relationship and revealed further possibilities for the future. Building on this opportunity, we will collaborate with ispace to support space infrastructure, with an eye toward the future field of ‘maintenance’ within space transportation systems.”
JALUX’s Executive Officer and President – Aviation & Airport Unit, Hidebumi Mori, added,
“JALUX is committed to advancing the space industry to help solve societal challenges through co-creation with space-related companies in the fields of space transportation and satellite data. With the signing of this agreement, we will contribute to expanding sales channels for ispace’s payload capacity by leveraging the JALUX Group's network, while creating new value on the lunar surface.”
ispace’s vision, is to ‘Expand our planet. Expand our future,’ and focuses on a sustainable economic sphere that connects the Earth and the Moon. JAL, under their vision of ‘Bringing the same world as aviation to space,’ is applying the experience gained during 70 years of aviation history in pioneering safe and secure air travel to space transportation. The company is planning to create a sustainable world that generates regular human and cargo transportation to space.
The new agreement outlines the co-creation of systems and infrastructure supporting future lunar bases with high-frequency transportation to the lunar surface. Leveraging maintenance technology, air traffic control, and operations management expertise developed by JAL and JALEC in the aviation field, the two companies will aim to advance a sustainable presence on the Moon. By combining ispace’s lunar transportation via its lander with the JAL Group’s aviation expertise and customer network, the partnership is expected to provide lunar transportation opportunities to diverse stakeholders.
Source: Japan Airlines
