Elon Musk's Space Exploration Technologies Corp. signed its second Japanese customer in as many weeks — but the payload this time will be lunar rovers rather than a group of space tourists.
Tokyo-based lunar-exploration startup Ispace has signed up for launches on SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket in 2020 and 2021. The first will carry a lunar lander into orbit around the moon, and the second aims to put one on the moon's surface so it can deploy a pair of rovers, Ispace said Wednesday.
"We share the vision with SpaceX of enabling humans to live in space, so we're very glad they will join us in this first step of our journey," Ispace CEO Takeshi Hakamada said in a statement.