SpaceIL secures crucial funding for launch of 2nd lunar probe
SpaceIL has obtained crucial financing toward the launch of the “Beresheet 2” Spacecraft in 2024, the association announced Sunday.
Beresheet seconds before engine failure. Photo: screenshot
Patrick Drahi, Martin Moshal and Morris Kahn will donate together US$ 70 million in favour of the mission.
Israel has plans to launch another spacecraft to the moon after its first attempt ended in April 2019 when the probe crashed onto the planet, moments before its scheduled landing.
Preliminary data supplied by the engineering teams of SpaceIL and Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) suggests a technical glitch in one of Beresheet’s components triggered the chain of events that caused the main engine of the spacecraft to malfunction.
The first Israeli spacecraft succeeded in travelling 400,000 kilometres (248,548 miles) from Israel until it touched the moon.
The 160-kilogram unmanned four-legged spacecraft would have been the smallest and cheapest spacecraft to land on the moon.
Beresheet 2 mission calls for the breaking of global records in space history, including a double landing on the Moon in a single mission by two of the smallest landing craft ever launched into space.
SpaceIL the non-profit organization that promotes science and science education in Israel, became the first private entity in history to reach the Moon, thereby positioning Israel as the seventh country to reach the moon.
TPS
