Interlune raises another $5M to mine helium-3 from the Moon
A Seattle startup is quietly building toward one of the most ambitious resource plays in history: pulling helium-3 from the lunar surface and shipping it back to Earth. Interlune closed a second $5 million SAFE (Simple Agreement for Future Equity) round in 2026, following an identical $5M raise earlier in the year. The company now claims nearly $500 million in binding purchase orders — customers include the US Air Force, the Department of Energy, quantum hardware firm Maybell Quantum, and Finnish cryogenics company Bluefors, per Interlune.space.
Why helium-3?
Helium-3 is vanishingly rare on Earth but abundant in the lunar regolith, deposited there over billions of years by solar wind. It has three main uses: cooling superconducting quantum computers to near absolute zero, detecting neutrons in security and medical imaging equipment, and — potentially — fueling fusion reactors that produce clean energy without radioactive waste. Current Earth-based supply, mostly a byproduct of nuclear weapons maintenance, is tightly controlled and nowhere near enough to meet projected demand. Half a kilogram of the stuff is worth over $9 million.
Interlune was founded in 2020 by Rob Meyerson and Gary Lai, both ex-Blue Origin executives, alongside Apollo 17 astronaut Harrison Schmitt — one of the last humans to walk on the Moon and a geologist who has spent decades arguing for lunar resource extraction.
The roadmap
The company's first hardware goes to the Moon as soon as late 2026: a mineralogical mapping instrument aboard Voyager Technologies' Griffin-1 lander, under NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program. That mission is designed to confirm where helium-3 concentrations are highest. A prospecting mission is targeted for 2027–2028, with a pilot extraction — returning tens of grams — aimed at 2030, according to SpaceOdysseyHub.
Beyond extraction, Interlune is partnering with industrial equipment maker Vermeer to build machinery capable of operating in low gravity and abrasive lunar dust — kit that could eventually support a permanent Moon base.
Concept rendering of a lunar helium-3 extraction operation, showing mining equipment and a solar power array. Illustration: Interlune
The skeptics
The geopolitical backdrop is complicated. Around 70 nations have signed the Artemis Accords, which set ground rules for lunar resource use, but China and Russia are not among them. China's Chang'e program is already mapping helium-3 deposits. Who owns what on the Moon remains legally unresolved.
There's also an economic question. Some NASA in-situ resource utilization experts have publicly questioned whether lunar mining can ever pencil out at scale. A separate critique, flagged by New Space Economy, points out that future fusion reactors may breed their own helium-3 on-site — potentially making a lunar supply chain obsolete before it even launches. And terrestrial competition is emerging: Pulsar Helium announced a helium-3 deposit discovery in Minnesota in late 2025.
For now, Interlune is betting that signed contracts and a first-mover position outweigh those risks. The next test is whether the 2026 mapping mission delivers data that justifies everything after it, reports GeekWire.