Nearly $45 million investment in Japanese launch startup reveals Toyota's interest in rockets, says chairman.

• Akio Toyoda, Chairman of Toyota Motor, announced on Monday that the company is considering the creation and manufacturing of orbital rockets.
• Interstellar Technologies, a startup developing orbital launch vehicles, is receiving a $44.4 million investment from the automaker.
• Toyoda stated during a CES press conference that we are also investigating rockets as an alternative to the current limitations of mobility on Earth and with only one car company.

Akio Toyoda, Chairman of LAS VEGAS, announced on Monday that the company is considering the creation and manufacturing of orbital rockets.

Toyota's "Woven by Toyota" mobility company is investing 7 billion Japanese yen ($44.4 million) in Interstellar Technologies Inc., a Japanese private spaceflight company developing launch vehicles for satellites.

Toyoda, a former CEO and member of the automaker family, stated that only one car company, specifically SpaceX, led by CEO Elon Musk, should be involved in the development of such technologies.

Toyoda stated during a press conference at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas that we are also investigating rockets as an alternative to the current limitations of mobility on earth and with only one car company.

Since its inception in 2013, Interstellar Technologies has successfully launched seven small suborbital MOMO rockets, achieving their first spaceflight in 2019. Despite this, the company has yet to deploy a satellite in orbit. Their plans include the development of larger ZERO and DECA rockets for spacecraft delivery.

Interstellar Technologies and Toyota plan to collaborate on rocket production, utilizing Toyota's expertise in mass vehicle production.

In the Japanese launch market, Toyota is challenging Mitsubishi, whose subsidiary Mitsubishi Heavy Industries has launched the H3 series of rockets for JAXA, the country's space agency. Mitsubishi's H3 rocket, which debuted several years behind schedule, was intended to be priced competitively with SpaceX's Falcon 9 rockets, which currently dominate the global launch market.

Woven City

On Monday, Toyota announced the completion of the first phase of Woven City, which includes housing for residents and inventors that the automaker is inviting to the location.

Toyota announced five years ago at CES that Toyoda had woven a "prototype city of the future" on a 175-acre site at the base of Mt. Fuji in Japan to test and develop new emerging technologies such as autonomous vehicles.

The chairman stated that Woven City's primary objective is not to generate profits but to serve as a trial ground for emerging technologies.