Israeli X-Prize team still short of funds
Capitalism in space: The Israeli Google Lunar X-Prize competitor, SpaceIL, still needs to raise $7.5 million by December 20th or it will be forced to drop out of the competition, even though they say their spacecraft is finished.
SpaceIL initially estimated it would need about $8 million for the GLXP effort, but costs soared to $85 million, team members said. The team needs to raise $30 million by Dec. 20 to pay its bills. It has secured $22.5 million in pledges, contingent on the team’s ability to raise that additional $7.5 million.
I must admit that something about this stinks. Their budget has gone up more than ten times from its original estimate, from $8 million to $85 million. They have so far raised $55 million of hard cash, which is still about seven times their original budget, and with this they have actually built their spacecraft. Why do their need another $30 million? And why the hard December 20th deadline or they shut down?
As I say, something about this situation doesn’t feel right to me.
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Capitalism in space: The Israeli Google Lunar X-Prize competitor, SpaceIL, still needs to raise $7.5 million by December 20th or it will be forced to drop out of the competition, even though they say their spacecraft is finished.
SpaceIL initially estimated it would need about $8 million for the GLXP effort, but costs soared to $85 million, team members said. The team needs to raise $30 million by Dec. 20 to pay its bills. It has secured $22.5 million in pledges, contingent on the team’s ability to raise that additional $7.5 million.
I must admit that something about this stinks. Their budget has gone up more than ten times from its original estimate, from $8 million to $85 million. They have so far raised $55 million of hard cash, which is still about seven times their original budget, and with this they have actually built their spacecraft. Why do their need another $30 million? And why the hard December 20th deadline or they shut down?
As I say, something about this situation doesn’t feel right to me.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
Is it possible that the original $8 million estimate did not include launch and operations? In addition, with the delay of six years or so — the original competition date was by the year 2012 — development and construction costs could easily be two or three times more than originally expected.
Often as a first-time project progresses, the team begins to realize the magnitude of the effort. This happened to the Apollo Lunar Module; no one had ever built such a machine before, and they realized a large number of unforeseen problems as they were developing the craft. The Israelis had never built a lunar rover before (few have), so they also lacked any previous experience to guide them.
The article says that the date is to pay the company’s bills. Is this final push for cash for the launch, and is the drop dead date due to the launch provider’s requirement, or is the company currently depending upon the kindness of suppliers to keep going and those suppliers are now demanding payment?
No matter how this turns out, the Google Lunar X-Prize is beginning to realize its overall goal.
There are other competitors and at least one former competitor who have said that they will continue with their mission whether or not they are awarded the prize, and this innovation and new industry is exactly the purpose of the Lunar X-Prize, just as with the suborbital prize. The suborbital prize got three US companies working toward suborbital space tourism (one of which has gone bust), and last year China announced that it will enter the suborbital space tourism industry:
http://behindtheblack.com/behind-the-black/points-of-information/china-company-to-launch-suborbital-tourists-by-2020/
It seems that whether or not anyone wins the prize, Google and Peter Diamandis will have started a new space industry: unmanned lunar commercial space.