Shares of Japan's ispace jumped Thursday, as it plans to commence a lunar transportation service that will launch aboard SpaceX's Starship.
The stock ended 19% higher at 508 yen, equivalent to $3.12, marking its largest one-day gain since January 2025.
The Tokyo-based company has secured 500 kilograms of payload capacity on Starship and is scheduled to launch the transportation service as soon as 2030, the company said in a statement Wednesday.
The mobile cargo system will help customers with relatively small payload delivery needs of 500 kilograms or less, creating a comprehensive service to integrate, transport and operate their payloads on the moon.
"High-capacity, relatively low-cost lunar transport, such as that provided by Starship, is essential to realizing the sustainable lunar economy that ispace aims to create," said Takeshi Hakamda, founder and chief executive of ispace.
The Japanese company is developing and preparing for a landing mission on the moon each year in 2028, 2029 and 2030, using its Ultra lunar lander.
Ispace said it recently established a presence in Saudi Arabia, in addition to its current hubs in Japan, the U.S. and Europe.
Write to Kimberley Kao at kimberley.kao@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
July 09, 2026 05:21 ET (09:21 GMT)
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