Toyota backs Japanese startup Interstellar

Apart from launchers, Toyota is building a lunar rover with Japan’s space agency that can carry astronauts on the moon’s surface for the NASA-led Artemis programme. — Reuters

TOKYO: A Toyota research unit will invest in Japanese startup Interstellar Technologies (IST) to support mass production of its rockets, the world’s biggest carmaker group says, expanding its foray into the space sector.

IST said that Woven by Toyota, a Toyota subsidiary that is building a “city of the future” in Japan with autonomous driving technology, will invest about seven billion yen (US$44.4mil) in IST by the first close of its Series F funding.