Interstellar Technologies, a Japanese rocket developer, is to receive $44.3 million from Toyota Group Company Woven. The investment is part of a larger strategic capital and business alliance with Toyota aimed at the “mass production of rockets,” the Hokkaido, Japan-based startup said on Jan. 7. Interstellar Technologies is seeking to emulate SpaceX’s vertical integration strategy by manufacturing launch vehicles and communications satellites in-house. The company has launched a small suborbital rocket to space and in 2025 reportedly plans to launch its two-stage Zero rocket for the first time. The Zero is a small orbital-class rocket that can carry an 800-kg payload to low Earth orbit. Interstellar is also working on a reusable heavy lift rocket, named Deca, that would start operations in the 2030s. “Interstellar aims to leverage automotive industry expertise, including Toyota’s production methods, to transition rocket manufacturing into a high-quality, cost-effective, and scalable process,” the startup says. The company has been collaborating with Toyota Motor Corp. since 2020, with 11 employees from the carmaker participating in a personnel exchange. The alliance between the two companies is focused on cost reduction, shortening lead times and creating a mass production system for rockets. Woven is a Toyota Group company focused on next-generation transportation technologies. The company is building a “Woven City” near Mount Fuji where new mobility technologies can be tested, including autonomous cars and electric vertical-takeoff-and-landing (eVTOL) air taxis from Toyota’s partner Joby Aviation. As part of the business alliance, Woven will contribute about $44.3 million (¥7 billion) as the lead investor in Interstellar’s first close of its Series F round. Interstellar expects an additional, undisclosed funding amount to be infused by Woven at the second close of its Series F round. Woven will also take a director seat on Interstellar’s board. Toyota and Interstellar both hint that the partnership’s long-term goal goes beyond launch vehicles and satellites and is aimed at human transportation. “We are exploring rockets too because the future of mobility shouldn’t be limited to just Earth,” Toyota Motor Corp. Chairman Akio Toyoda said during a presentation at CES in Las Vegas on Jan. 7.

Daniel Timbol from Komb Village in Lai Valley, Mendi-Munihu district of Southern Highlands Province, was recently appointed as the new secondary school inspector for Southern Highlands Province. Timbol is a member of the Seventh Day Adventist church and a teacher by profession who specializes in teaching mathematics for grade nine, ten, eleven, and twelve in secondary level. He started his teaching career straight after graduating from the University of Goroka in 2000. He joined Kutubu High School teaching staff now known as Kutubu Secondary School, where he taught mathematics for two decades. He was then promoted to Deputy Principal Academic (DPA) in 2014. Timbol while DPA at Kutubu Secondary, was recognized by the Southern Highlands Education Board as the best DPA in terms of discipline and positive moral support for the school. He was presented a laptop by the Highlands Regional Education Director, Aloesis Rema in support from the former Southern Highlands Education Advisor Joel Raitano in 2015 who had recognized his potential. The education board promoted him to a principal position in 2020 to Nipa Secondary School, located in a politically divest region. From there, he then led the school from 2020 to 2023, and in early this year 2024, he was accepted and appointed as pioneer Deputy Principal for Mendi Day Secondary. After seeing the potential in him, Member for Mendi Raphel Tonpi then asked him to head Lai Valley Technical Junior High school. Whilst there, he then applied for the inspector position and was appointed as the new secondary school inspector for Southern Highlands province. Timbol told PNG HAUSBUNG that he was amongst other applicants who had also applied for this position and successfully attained the role. “I applied for the position, just like many other principals of equals from within Southern Highlands and based upon the merit I was offered the position.” Furthermore, Timbol will now work alongside the existing standard officer Peter Olohand to maintain standards of education in the province and the country as a whole.