SpaceIL, the nonprofit Israeli initiative whose spacecraft crashed on the
moon two years ago, said Sunday that it has secured $70 million in funding
to make a second attempt at a lunar landing.
SpaceIL said the new pledges means that it has raised almost all of the $100
million it estimates is needed for the mission to meet its 2024 launch
target.
SpaceIL said the funding would come from South African-Israeli billionaire
Morris Kahn, who bankrolled much of the first mission, French-Israeli
billionaire Patrick Drahi and South African philanthropist Martin Moshal,
co-founder of venture capital firm Entree Capital.
The first "Beresheet," or "Genesis" spacecraft, built by SpaceIL and
state-owned Israel Aerospace Industries, crashed into the moon moments
before touchdown in April 2019, falling short in its attempt to become the
first privately funded lunar landing.
According to the Davidson Institute, a branch of the Weizmann Institute of
Science research university in Israel, the spacecraft suffered a string of
technical malfunctions. That included damage to the star trackers, a type of
navigation tool, failure of computer systems and engine failure.
The new mission, to be called Beresheet 2, was first announced in late 2020
and plans to set new global space records through a double landing on the
moon and the installment of the lightest ever moon landers, each weighing 60
kg (132 pounds) without fuel.
It will be composed of three spacecraft—an orbiter and two landers—with the
mission hoping to follow China in becoming only the second to successfully
land on the far side of the moon.
The orbiter, known as the mothership, is set to remain in space for years,
serving as a platform for educational science activities through a remote
connection that allows students from around the world to participate in
deep-space research.
"The Beresheet project is my life's mission, so I decided to take it up
again. I plan to do everything that is within my power to take Israel back
to the moon, this time for a historic double landing," said Kahn, who is
chairman of SpaceIL.