Disrupting Japan

We startup founders and investors like to talk about “moonshots”. It points out startups that have huge dreams, those that are solving hard problems, and those that will actually change the world if they succeed. Usually, the term moonshot is used metaphorically, but today I’d like to introduce you to a literal moonshot. Takeshi Hakamada, founder and CEO of ispace, plans on landing commercial payloads on the moon in the next two years. Ispace is in the process of developing lunar landers and lunar rovers, and they plan on using the increasingly inexpensive commercial launch companies like SpaceX and Blue Origin to send them to the moon. Ispace has secured a partnership with Japan’s space agency, and they have attracted more than $90 million in investment. It’s a great conversation and I think you’ll really enjoy it. Show Notes Why Japan's space program is being privatized How a lunar lander can be commercially viable by 2020 An overview of ispace's first ten lunar missions How much it costs to