ANA Holdings invests in Space Quarters, a startup building structures in orbit

ANA backs a space construction startup

ANA Holdings, the parent company of All Nippon Airways, has taken a stake in Space Quarters, a Japanese startup that plans to build large structures in space. According to Notebookcheck, the airline group announced the investment in a press release and did not disclose how much money it put in.

ANA is one of several companies backing the startup. In a separate announcement made at the same time, Space Quarters said it had raised ¥910 million, about $5.7 million, from several venture capital investors in a pre-Series A round. The company had previously raised roughly the same amount.

How the orbit assembly system works

Space Quarters is a spin-off from Tohoku University. Its plan is to avoid launching structures that are already assembled. Instead, basic components would travel to space in a compact form aboard rockets, where a robot would put them together on site.

The core of the system is called DAIQ. According to ANA, several robots cooperate in DAIQ, and together they carry out each step of the build, from holding a part and placing it to fixing it in place. The startup says the funding will go towards developing this orbital construction capability.

Ground, flight and moon tests so far

ANA says the system has already passed a series of trials. Successful tests on the ground took place in June 2026, according to the airline group.

Space Quarters also showed component welding aboard an aircraft in simulated zero gravity in March, according to ANA. The welding process was additionally tested under simulated lunar gravity, which suggests the company is thinking about conditions away from Earth.

Why an airline is looking beyond Earth

The plans reach further than Earth orbit. Notebookcheck reports that operations on the moon are also under consideration as part of the startup's ambitions.

For ANA, the investment is part of a broader interest in space tourism. The group sees significant potential in the field because rocket launches have become more cost-effective in recent years. The move places the airline alongside a growing number of companies betting that construction in orbit will become commercially practical.

What it means for readers

The investment is modest by corporate standards, and neither the value of ANA's stake nor the company's valuation was disclosed. Even so, it links an established Japanese airline group with early-stage research into robotic assembly in orbit.

If the approach works, structures such as stations or platforms could be built in space without relying on rockets that carry fully assembled hardware. The reported test results are encouraging, but the technology is still at a development stage, so any operational use remains some way off.