Space Mining Companies: Who Is Mining Asteroids and the Moon (2026)

Space mining companies aim to extract water, metals and gases from asteroids and the Moon. None has yet done it commercially, but in 2026 several are flying their first missions, and the economics of the business are becoming clearer.

This guide lists the main space mining companies, what each targets and how far it has got, explains why space mining is really two different businesses, sets out the missions to watch and the legal position, and covers the risks. Every figure comes from a named source, and none of it is investment advice.

What is space mining?

Space mining is the extraction of useful material from asteroids, the Moon or other bodies, either to use in space or to bring back to Earth. Agencies call using local material in space in-situ resource utilisation (ISRU). Targets include water ice, platinum-group metals, helium-3 and lunar soil, or regolith.

Most of the near-term activity is around the Moon and near-Earth asteroids, the region covered in our guide to cislunar space.

Space mining companies in 2026

The leading space mining companies are AstroForge, Karman+, TransAstra and Interlune, alongside lunar companies such as ispace and Lunar Outpost. All are at the prospecting or demonstration stage.

All except ispace are privately held. Our guide to private space companies covers the wider sector.

Asteroid mining companies

AstroForge

AstroForge was founded in 2022 to mine platinum-group metals from metal-rich, or M-type, near-Earth asteroids. Its first deep-space probe, Odin, launched in February 2025 and was lost to a communications failure about a day later. Odin cost about $3.5 million, which AstroForge says is about 7% of the $95 million spacecraft cost of NASA's Lunar Trailblazer. Its second spacecraft, the 200 kg DeepSpace-2, has landing legs and is due to launch with Intuitive Machines' IM-3 mission, aiming to reach one of about 28 candidate metal asteroids. The company says it will cost around $10 million, self-funded.

Karman+

Karman+ targets water rather than metals. Its first mission, High Frontier, is due to launch in February 2027 on a SpaceX rideshare, rendezvous with a near-Earth asteroid and capture about a kilogram of regolith, for a total mission cost of $10 million to $15 million. The company plans to sell water-based propellant to spacecraft in orbit, the market covered in our guide to in-orbit refuelling.

TransAstra

TransAstra develops inflatable Capture Bags to enclose objects in space, from defunct satellites to small asteroids. In 2025 it won a $2.5 million NASA contract, matched by $2.5 million of private investment, to scale the bag from 1 metre to 10 metres, and tested a 1-metre version at the International Space Station. It is studying a mission to capture an asteroid of about 100 tonnes, with rendezvous targeted for 2028 or 2029.

Lunar mining companies

Lunar mining is closer to revenue than asteroid mining because the Moon is three days away and NASA is buying deliveries and resource demonstrations there.

• Interlune plans to extract helium-3, which is rare on Earth and used to cool quantum computers. It reports nearly $500 million of binding purchase orders, including from the US Department of Energy, and in May 2026 won a $6.9 million NASA contract to build a payload that scoops and sorts regolith and measures its gases.
• Black Moon Energy, another helium-3 prospector, has told Aerospace America it holds $500 million of helium-3 contracts. Magna Petra is working with ispace on helium-3 recovery.
• ispace builds lunar landers and is one of eight companies NASA selected for its next lunar delivery contract, CLPS 2.
• NASA's own PROMISE rover, targeted for late 2028, will drill about a metre into the lunar south pole to characterise ice and other resources.

Helium-3 has been estimated to sell for as much as $20 million per kilogram. That figure reflects how scarce it is on Earth, and lunar soil holds it only in parts per billion, so extracting it at scale is the central challenge.

Two different businesses: Earth return and in-space use

Space mining is really two businesses: returning valuable material to Earth, and selling resources in space, where the benchmark is the cost of launching them from Earth. The comparison below shows why many companies now target water first:

Selling resources in space depends on having customers there. Refuelling, in-space transportation and commercial stations are the first buyers, and the space logistics market guide shows how small that market still is in measured revenue.

Space mining missions to watch, 2026 to 2029

These dates are the companies' and agencies' own targets. Deep-space schedules often slip, as Odin and many lunar landers have shown.

What happened to the first asteroid miners

The first wave of asteroid mining companies, Planetary Resources and Deep Space Industries, were sold in 2018 and 2019 without reaching an asteroid. Planetary Resources had raised about $50 million by 2016, including from Eric Schmidt and James Cameron, before failing to raise a new round; it was bought by the blockchain company ConsenSys in 2018. Deep Space Industries was bought by Bradford Space in 2019.

The current companies have responded with much cheaper missions using commercial parts and rideshare launches, aiming to prove each step before spending on extraction.

Is asteroid mining legal?

No international treaty bans asteroid mining, but whether companies can own what they extract is not settled in international law. This is a general summary of public sources, not legal advice.

• The 1967 Outer Space Treaty forbids nations from claiming sovereignty over the Moon or other celestial bodies. Countries disagree on whether extracting resources counts as appropriation.
• Four countries have passed laws recognising ownership of extracted resources: the United States (2015), Luxembourg (2017), the United Arab Emirates (2019) and Japan (2021).
• The Artemis Accords, a non-binding set of principles, state that extracting resources does not in itself amount to national appropriation. Vietnam became the 78th signatory in October 2026.
• A UN working group is drafting non-binding principles on space resource activities, with further discussion planned for 2027.

How space mining is funded

Space mining companies are funded mainly by venture capital and government contracts. AstroForge raised a $13 million seed round in 2022 and a $40 million Series A in 2024; Karman+ raised a $20 million seed round in 2025. NASA contracts, such as Interlune's $6.9 million award and TransAstra's $2.5 million, pay for specific technology steps. These amounts are small next to launch or satellite companies; our guide to space venture capital explains how such rounds work.

Risks and open questions

• Unproven technology: no company has yet excavated material in microgravity on an asteroid, and neither of AstroForge's first two spacecraft achieved its main goal.
• Market risk for Earth return: returning large quantities of a scarce metal could lower its price, reducing the reward.
• Customer risk for in-space use: water and propellant sales depend on a refuelling market that is still at the demonstration stage.
• Legal uncertainty: ownership rights rest on national laws and non-binding principles that not all countries accept.
• Long timelines: Psyche reaches its asteroid in 2029, six years after launch, and commercial missions face similar distances.

Outlook for space mining companies

The next three years will show whether low-cost missions can reach asteroids and capture material, and whether lunar prospectors can measure resources well enough to plan extraction. If they succeed, the first products are most likely to be water and propellant sold in space, with Earth return of metals and helium-3 further off. All of it sits within a growing space economy.

Mined resources only matter if they can be moved to where they are needed. Delivering propellant and cargo between orbits is the focus of Orbit2Orbit's in-space logistics network: autonomous spacecraft that dock, deliver and redeploy between satellites, stations and orbital platforms. For information about Orbit2Orbit itself, visit the Orbit2Orbit homepage.

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