ispace Announces Findings from Mission 2 'Improvement Task Force'

ispace, inc. (Tokyo, Japan; Representative Director: Takeshi Hakamada; Securities Code: 9348) announced today at a press conference the findings of its 'Improvement Task Force,' a group centered on third-party experts established to identify broader improvements following the technical analysis of the Mission 2 soft landing failure in June 2025. During the conference, co-chairs Professor Olivier L. de Weck of MIT (Apollo Program Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics) and Professor Naohiko Kohtake of Keio University's Graduate School of System Design and Management presented '7 Recommendations' as concrete improvement measures to the company's management. The review focused on verifying the validity of ispace's internal technical analysis from an independent perspective, exploring potential oversights. The task force utilized CAST (Causal Analysis based on Systems Methodology), an incident analysis technique used to uncover causes in complex socio-technical systems. This allowed for a comprehensive analysis of the Mission 2 landing failure, extending beyond hardware issues related to the laser range finder to include the entire system. The objectives for establishing the Improvement Task Force were: 1) To verify the validity of internal technical analysis and gain additional insights; 2) To provide recommendations for future missions to mature lunar landing technology to a commercial standard; and 3) To clarify the company's current status and maintain transparency with stakeholders including shareholders, customers, and the government. Based on the CAST analysis, the task force provided '7 Recommendations' across three levels: Operational, System Development, and Management. ■ 7 Recommendations from the Improvement Task Force: Operational Level 1. Introduction of Terrain Relative Navigation (TRN) 2. Utilization of remaining fuel during landing operations System Development Level 3. Improvement of vendor selection processes 4. Increase in project resources allocated to testing 5. Design and verification of Fault Detection, Isolation, and Recovery (FDIR) Management Level 6. Improvement of collaboration between ispace and Draper 7. Strengthening of corporate risk management approaches In response to these recommendations, the company has announced specific improvement measures to be implemented in future missions. Key examples include the introduction of TRN (Recommendation 1), leveraging knowledge from JAXA/SLIM through the Space Strategy Fund, and the expansion of the Flight Operation department into a 'Test and Flight Operation' department to address the need for increased testing resources (Recommendation 4).