5 Sep, 2025
Agreement Strengthens Japan – India Cooperation through Private Sector Leadership in Cislunar Space
Tokyo–September 5, 2025 – ispace, inc., a global lunar exploration company and Digantara, a leading space situational awareness company based in India, announced opening discussions on a landmark joint lunar mission, focusing on cislunar situational awareness. The announcement coincides with the meeting of India’s Prime Minister Narendra Moi and Japan’s Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba during the 15th India-Japan Annual Summit in Tokyo.
Takeshi Hakamada (left), Founder & CEO of ispace and Anirudh Sharma (right), CEO of Digantara
at India-Japan Economic Forum in Tokyo
Building on the achievements of India’s Chandrayaan missions by ISRO, the upcoming ISRO–JAXA Lunar Polar Exploration (LuPEX) mission, and commercial Missions 1 and 2 by ispace, this private-sector partnership aims to mark a turning point in Asia’s lunar ambitions. It represents a significant large-scale commercial collaboration between Indian and Japanese space startups, signaling a new era of cross-border innovation.
The joint mission will combine Digantara’s expertise in space situational awareness with ispace’s lunar landing capabilities to deliver a private lunar landing, enable payload delivery and data acquisition, and integrate cislunar situational awareness into operations. Together, the companies aim to create a sustainable lunar ecosystem, laying the foundation for long-term infrastructure, logistics, and resource utilization on and around the Moon.
Statement of Takeshi Hakamada, Founder & CEO of ispace, inc.
“Our collaboration with Digantara is about more than reaching the lunar surface. It’s about creating the ecosystem that will not only allow humanity develop a sustained presence on the Moon,” said Takeshi Hakamada, Founder & CEO of ispace. “By aligning with the QUAD framework, we are ensuring that this future is cooperative, transparent, and sustainable.”
Statement of Anirudh Sharma, CEO of Digantara
“ispace has been at the forefront of private lunar exploration, and we are excited to complement their proven capabilities with our expertise in space domain awareness” said Anirudh Sharma, CEO of Digantara. “Through this joint mission, we are laying the foundation for a sustainable lunar ecosystem, where safe operations, resource utilization, and long-term infrastructure go hand in hand.”
The announcement of the joint mission following the Summit highlights how government-to-government ties between India and Japan are now being reinforced by private-sector leadership. Digantara and ispace’s collaboration represents the next step in building a sustainable, secure, and commercially viable presence on and around the Moon.
About ispace, inc. (https://ispace-inc.com)
ispace, a global lunar resource development company with the vision, “Expand our planet. Expand our future.”, specializes in designing and building lunar landers and rovers. ispace aims to extend the sphere of human life into space and create a sustainable world by providing high-frequency, low-cost transportation services to the Moon. The company has business entities in Japan, Luxembourg, and the United States with more than 300 employees worldwide. For more information, visit: www.ispace-inc.com and follow us on X: @ispace_inc.
About Digantara (https://www.digantara.co.in/):
Digantara is a Space Surveillance and Intelligence company, specializing in Space Situational Awareness (SSA) with a focus on ensuring the safety, sustainability, and long-term viability of orbital operations. Leveraging advanced capabilities in space-based detection, tracking, identification, and monitoring, Digantara delivers comprehensive domain awareness across all orbital regimes. Through its unified platform, the company equips end-users with actionable intelligence, integrating critical data and insights for real-time decision-making.