ispace U.S. Selected for NASA CLPS 2 Lunar Contract, Eligible to Bid as Prime Contractor

ispace technologies U.S., Inc. has been selected for NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services 2 master contract, a 10-year vehicle with a $10 billion ceiling that makes the Colorado company eligible to compete as a prime contractor for lunar missions. Business Wire published the selection on November 7, 2026.

What the CLPS 2 Selection Allows

ispace U.S. is the Denver-based American arm of Japan's ispace, inc., which has flown two lunar missions to date. The CLPS 2 award is an Indefinite Delivery, Indefinite Quantity master contract, and the company said it will bid for future NASA task orders as a prime contractor, offering end-to-end payload transportation and lunar surface operations with its ULTRA lander and future lander designs.

"We're grateful to NASA for this opportunity," said Elizabeth Kryst, CEO of ispace-U.S. "Over the past six years, our Colorado team has built a strong foundation with real engineering, integration, and flight operations experience behind it. CLPS 2 gives us the opportunity to compete in leading those missions for NASA's lunar science and Moon Base objectives in the years ahead."

The company said selection onto the contract does not itself constitute a funded mission. Under the earlier CLPS 1.0 contract, which NASA has used to issue robotic lunar delivery task orders since 2018, ispace-U.S. supported NASA missions as a subcontractor. CLPS 2 carries a 10-year base ordering period plus a 5-year option period.

Bretton Alexander, EVP of Business Development at ispace-U.S., said the ULTRA lander "offers NASA reliable and affordable access to any location on the lunar surface for science and technology demonstration missions." The company said its Denver headquarters houses spacecraft development, assembly, integration and test, and mission operations.

NASA's Moon Base program drew other commercial selections the same day. Impulse Space was awarded two task orders for the program, supporting missions scheduled to begin in 2028, according to PR Newswire.

ispace U.S.'s Lunar Investment Record

According to akta.pro company records, ispace U.S. has signed partnerships aimed at lunar missions. In April 2025 the company announced a strategic collaboration with Zeno Power Systems to integrate radioisotope power systems into future lunar missions, targeting a 2027 demonstration of lunar night survival capability. That month it also signed an MOU with Redwire Corporation at the 40th Space Symposium to jointly pursue NASA CLPS and commercial lunar missions.

In May 2025, ispace U.S. and Agile Space Industries jointly announced the VoidRunner engine, a simplified throttleable propulsion design with 4x fewer parts than the A2200 baseline, supporting the APEX 1.0 lander with a Fall 2025 Critical Design Review. The same records show a $73 million NASA Commercial Lunar Payload Services contract (CP-12) as part of Team Draper, awarded July 2022, with $7.7 million in additional funding released from Draper for that contract.

NASA's Task Order Schedule

The company said it will compete for individual task orders as NASA issues them under the CLPS 2 vehicle. The contract's 10-year base ordering period is followed by a 5-year option period.