ExLabs to Deliver ChibaTech Payloads to Deep-Space as Part of Apophis Mission

University-Led Payloads to Land on Asteroid Apophis as Part of the World’s First Commercial Deep-Space Rideshare Mission

LONG BEACH, Calif., Jan. 7, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — ExLabs has announced its partnership with Japan’s Chiba Institute of Technology (ChibaTech) and its Planetary Exploration Research Center (PERC) to send university-led payloads to the surface of asteroid Apophis during its rare near-Earth flyby in 2029. ApophisExL is the world’s first commercial deep-space rideshare and is supported by mission design and operations collaboration with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) operated by Caltech.

Under the leadership of planetary scientist and PERC Director, Dr. Tomoko Arai, ChibaTech students and researchers are developing two landing payloads to be deployed on the asteroid’s surface. This will be one of the few instances globally where students are directly contributing to flight hardware that will leave Earth orbit.

“This project challenges us to do three things never done before,” said Dr. Arai. “First, we will conduct a rapid-response planetary defense/asteroid mission through industry–academia collaboration. Second, CubeSat heritage technologies are being utilized in the lander design. Third, engineering students with hands-on CubeSat development experience will develop the lander. These efforts connect education directly to exploration and continues Japan’s legacy of contribution in asteroid missions.”

The ApophisExL spacecraft will reach Apophis before it passes by Earth and remain near the asteroid for observations throughout the encounter on April 13, 2029. Apophis will come within 32,000 kilometers of Earth, actually passing below geostationary satellites. It is expected to be visible to the naked eye for billions of people. 

ChibaTech’s instrument package includes a multiband imaging camera onboard the ExLabs mothership and deployable Cubesat-shaped landers (called CubeLanders), designed to study the asteroid’s surface composition and structure. The CubeLanders build on flight heritages from the Chibatech student-led CubeSats and Japan’s Hayabusa missions.

“Giving students the opportunity to design and fly hardware that will land on an asteroid is transformative. It reshapes how they see engineering, science, and their role in humanity’s future in space. Japan has a strong legacy in asteroid exploration, and this mission extends that legacy through international collaboration and a new commercial approach to deep-space. We’re proud to partner with ExLabs on a mission that places students at the center of real deep space exploration.”
– Joi Ito, President, Chiba Institute of Technology

A New Model for Deep Space Access
Historically, missions to asteroids have been limited to large, multi-billion-dollar programs led by national space agencies. ApophisExL introduces a new paradigm: commercially led, fully operated deep-space missions with co-manifested payload access, dramatically reducing costs, complexity, and barriers to participation.

“We’re working to overcome the barriers that have long kept deep-space exploration in the hands of only the largest space agencies,” said Keiko Nakamura-Messenger, Vice President of Mission Development at ExLabs and a former NASA mission scientist. “There are likely dozens of advanced, space-qualified instruments sitting in cleanrooms around the world, flight spares, experiments from missions that never launched, or amazing instruments developed by college students. ExLabs is building the affordable, flexible spacecraft needed to give these payloads real flight opportunities to the inner solar system. Our collaboration with ChibaTech embodies our vision of deep space exploration: internationally collaborative, commercially enabled, and open to the next generation for the future space exploration.”

ApophisExL is the first in an ongoing series of fully hosted deep-space missions built around this model.

Technical Oversight from Deep-Space Veterans
To ensure mission readiness and alignment with established deep-space standards, ExLabs is collaborating with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory on mission architecture support, spacecraft design reviews, and operational planning.

“This mission signals a new way forward,” said Richard Cook, Director for Strategy & Formulation at JPL. “Partnering with ExLabs on a commercial-led deep space mission allows us to combine rigorous science with an operational model designed for scale. A ChibaTech payload landing on Apophis is a powerful example of what this model enables. We’re excited to see how it evolves, and we look forward to expanding this cadence of exploration together.”

The collaboration between ExLabs, ChibaTech, and JPL sets a new standard for commercially led, academically enabled deep-space missions, and creates a template for future planetary science where students contribute to flight-ready systems on operational spacecraft.

About ExLabs
ExLabs is a commercial deep-space mission operator developing modular, autonomous infrastructure for Geostationary Orbit and beyond (GEO+). Through its flagship spacecraft platform known as SERV (Science, Exploration and Resource Vehicle) and Mission-as-a-Service model, ExLabs enables frequent, affordable access to deep space for science, defense, universities, and commercial partners, unlocking planetary defense capabilities, space resource exploration, and a sustainable off-world economy.

About Chiba Institute of Technology (ChibaTech) – Planetary Exploration Research Center (PERC)
The Planetary Exploration Research Center (PERC) at Chiba Institute of Technology (ChibaTech) is Japan’s first university-based center dedicated to planetary exploration and planetary science. Under the leadership of Dr. Tomoko Arai, PERC conducts integrated research on asteroids, comets, the Moon, and other small bodies, covering mission design, science instrument development, and scientific analysis, through close collaboration with space agencies, international partners and industry to expand humanity’s understanding of the origin of terrestrial life and the Solar System.

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SOURCE ExLabs