Israeli non-profit suspends its effort to build a second Beresheet lunar lander
The Israeli non-profit, SpaceIL, has now suspended its effort to build a second Beresheet lunar lander, citing an inability to raise funds for the project.
SpaceIL had built Beresheet-1, which in 2019 successfully reached lunar orbit, only to crash when it attempted to soft land.
The project’s budget was expected to be similar to that of Beresheet 1, which cost approximately $100 million. Most of the funding came from a group of donors led by Patrick Drahi and Morris Kahn, the primary backer of the original mission. However, in mid-2023, the donor group announced it would no longer support the project. SpaceIL launched an urgent effort to find alternative funding, but the outbreak of war on October 7, 2023, made fundraising even more challenging.
The organization’s board of directors repeatedly extended deadlines to secure funding, but by the final deadline—March 2025—the necessary funds had not been raised, forcing the suspension of the project.
A number of SpaceIL’s engineers on Beresheet-1 left the company after its failure to instead form their own Isreali company that partnered with Firefly to build the successful lunar lander Blue Ghost. I suspect their departure was a major reason why the original investors left, and no others could be found.
SpaceIL continues to do non-profit educational work in Israel. Though it claims its lunar lander project is not dead but merely suspended, it is almost certain it will never fly.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
The Israeli non-profit, SpaceIL, has now suspended its effort to build a second Beresheet lunar lander, citing an inability to raise funds for the project.
SpaceIL had built Beresheet-1, which in 2019 successfully reached lunar orbit, only to crash when it attempted to soft land.
The project’s budget was expected to be similar to that of Beresheet 1, which cost approximately $100 million. Most of the funding came from a group of donors led by Patrick Drahi and Morris Kahn, the primary backer of the original mission. However, in mid-2023, the donor group announced it would no longer support the project. SpaceIL launched an urgent effort to find alternative funding, but the outbreak of war on October 7, 2023, made fundraising even more challenging.
The organization’s board of directors repeatedly extended deadlines to secure funding, but by the final deadline—March 2025—the necessary funds had not been raised, forcing the suspension of the project.
A number of SpaceIL’s engineers on Beresheet-1 left the company after its failure to instead form their own Isreali company that partnered with Firefly to build the successful lunar lander Blue Ghost. I suspect their departure was a major reason why the original investors left, and no others could be found.
SpaceIL continues to do non-profit educational work in Israel. Though it claims its lunar lander project is not dead but merely suspended, it is almost certain it will never fly.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
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