Israel Space Agency Gives $5.6M To Help Launch Beresheet 2 Moon Lander
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
JERUSALEM (JTA) — The Israel Space Agency will put about $5.6 million toward Beresheet 2, a second attempt to land an Israeli spacecraft on the moon.
The contribution is double the 10 million shekels that the agency under the auspices of the Ministry of Science gave to the first Beresheet mission, which crash landed on the surface of the moon on April 11.
The announcement was made Sunday at the weekly Cabinet meeting by Science and Technology Minister Ofir Akunis said on Sunday, the Jerusalem Post reported.
The agency also has asked NASA to be more involved in the new effort. NASA provided SpaceIL, the private foundation behind the Israeli lunar landing effort, with special laser technology to help in communication with the Beresheet spacecraft.
The first Beresheet effort cost nearly $100 million and was mostly funded by donors.
The results of an investigation into the crash will be published later this month.
Less than 48 hours after the crash, SpaceIL chairman Morris Kahn announced the launch of the Beresheet 2 project. The South African-born billionaire donated much of the funds for the first effort.
“The Beresheet project fascinated and united all Israeli citizens in anticipation of a successful landing on the Moon,” said Akunis on Sunday. “The enormous public interest, along with breakthrough technological achievements, sharpened the need to increase the tremendous mobilization for the success of the project.”
The spacecraft was developed in response to the Google Lunar X Prize competition, which challenged nongovernmental groups to land a spacecraft on the moon. That challenge finished last year, without a winner of the $30 million prize.
But the prize committee decided days after the crash that it would award SpaceIL a $1 million “Moonshot Award” for its achievements.
It’s our birthday and we’re still celebrating!
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news.
This week we celebrate 129 years of the Forward. We’re proud of our origins as a Yiddish print publication serving Jewish immigrants. And we’re just as proud of what we’ve become today: A trusted source of Jewish news and opinion, available digitally to anyone in the world without paywalls or subscriptions.
We’ve helped five generations of American Jews make sense of the news and the world around them — and we aren’t slowing down any time soon.
As a nonprofit newsroom, reader donations make it possible for us to do this work. Support independent, agenda-free Jewish journalism and our board will match your gift in honor of our birthday!
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
