Toyota is researching the event of orbital rockets and making startup investments

After Toyota CEO and President Akio Toyoda announced his resignation on Thursday, he shared his advice and business philosophy with his successor.

Photo by Yoshikazu Tsuno |. Gamma-rapho |

LAS VEGAS- Toyota engine is exploring the development and production of orbital rockets, Chairman Akio Toyoda said on Monday.

The automaker, through its Woven by Toyota mobility company, is investing 7 billion Japanese yen ($44.4 million) in Interstellar Technologies Inc., a Japanese private space company that develops satellite launch vehicles.

Toyoda, the automaker's former CEO and scion, said there shouldn't be just “one car company” – referring to Teslawhose CEO Elon Musk also heads SpaceX and works on developing such technologies.

“We are also exploring rockets because the future of mobility should not be limited to just Earth or just one car company,” Toyoda said during a press conference for the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

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Founded in 2013, Interstellar Technologies has conducted seven launches of its small suborbital MOMO rockets, reaching space for the first time in 2019. The startup has not yet deployed a satellite in orbit and plans to develop the larger ZERO and DECA rocket series for spacecraft delivery.

Toyota said the company expects to use its experience in mass production of vehicles to produce rockets with interstellar technologies.

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

Woven City

Toyota also announced Monday the completion of the first phase of Woven City, including housing residents and inventors the automaker is inviting to come to the site.

Woven by Toyota was announced by Toyoda at CES five years ago as a “prototype city of the future,” located on a 175-acre site at the foot of Mount Fuji in Japan to test and develop new technologies such as autonomous vehicles.

The chairman said Woven City's mission is not necessarily to make money, but to be a test track and experimental proving ground for future technologies.