Interlune Corporation
"Building the industrial backbone of the space economy"
Seattle space-resources firm founded 2020 building a lunar helium-3 harvesting system; unveiled a 100 t/h regolith excavator prototype with Vermeer in 2025.
Interlune Corporation is a Seattle-based space resources company founded in 2020 that is developing equipment to harvest helium-3 and other resources from lunar regolith, along with infrastructure services for operations on the Moon. Its leadership includes CEO Rob Meyerson (former President of Blue Origin), COO Indra Hornsby, CTO Gary Lai (former Blue Origin Chief Architect) and Head of Product James Antifaev; Apollo 17 astronaut Harrison Schmitt is a strategic advisor.
Interlune's harvesting concept has four steps: excavate, sort, extract and separate. On May 7, 2025, the company unveiled a full-scale prototype excavator built with industrial equipment maker Vermeer under a joint development agreement. The excavator is designed to ingest 100 metric tons of lunar regolith per hour and return it to the surface in continuous motion, with lower tractive force, power use and dust generation than conventional trenching; a sub-scale version was tested in summer 2024. The final excavator is to be integrated into the Interlune Harvester. Sorting and extraction devices have been tested in simulated lunar gravity on parabolic flights, and separation technology is developed at the company's cryogenic lab in Seattle. In July 2026 Interlune reported producing pure helium-3 from domestic helium using a new cryogenic process, and in August 2026 it implanted helium into lunar regolith simulant for testing hardware on Earth.
Government work includes an NSF SBIR Phase I award (2023) for regolith sizing and sorting, a US Department of Energy grant (2024) for separation technology, a NASA TechFlights grant (2024), a US Air Force SBIR Direct-to-Phase II contract (November 2025) for domestic helium-3 supply, a NASA STTR project on lunar trenching and excavation (announced February 2026) and a USD 6.9 million NASA contract for lunar resource development (May 2026). Interlune collaborates with Astrolab on lunar resource harvesting and infrastructure (2026) and expanded its partnership with Vermeer in July 2026. The company states it holds more than USD 500 million in binding purchase orders and government contracts for helium-3, with customers including Maybell and Bluefors. As of May 2025 it reported USD 18 million in private funding; investors shown on its site include 776, AU Foundry, Brandmark, Liquid 2 Ventures and Shasta.
Primary type & automation activities this supplier delivers:
Lunar Excavator (full-scale prototype)
- Launch Year: 2025
Continuous-motion regolith excavator co-developed with Vermeer for lunar helium-3 harvesting.
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Contact Interlune Corporation
WEBSITE
https://www.interlune.spaceHEADQUARTERS
United States
Company Facts
Founded
2020
Primary Role
Manufacturer
Company Size
-
Primary Region
North America
Annual Sales
-
Funding Stage
Early-Stage VC
Funding Total
-
