Second Time Is a Charm. SpaceIL's Raised $70M for Its Second Mission on the Moon - autoevolution

In 2019, SpaceIL caught all the headlines with its failed attempt to land its Beresheet spacecraft on the Moon. The lander suffered several failures and went down, ending way too soon what was meant to be a historical moment for the company and for Israel altogether. But SpaceIL wants to take another shot at it now that the Beresheet 2 mission has received $70 million in funding.

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The second attempt to reach the moon was announced by the Israeli company in 2020, but it took until now to secure the funds for the costly endeavor. Now SpaceIL reports that it’s managed to secure $70 million of the necessary $100 million, which represents the total cost of the mission.

If everything goes well and the company manages to raise the rest of the money, the Beresheet 2 mission is scheduled for launch in 2024. It will consist of a record-breaking double landing on the Moon at the same time, with two small landing craft, among the smallest ever, to be launched in space within the same mission. Each spacecraft weighs 265 pounds (120 kg) with fuel representing half of the weight.

Both mini-spacecraft will detach from the mothership and one of them aims to end on the far side of the Moon. This would be a major accomplishment for Israel, as only China has managed to do that so far. SpaceIL plans to leave the mothership in space for five years for educational and scientific purposes so that students all over the world can connect to it remotely.

The Beresheet 1 mission (also called Genesis 1) was the first attempt of SpaceIL to reach the Moon and it took place in April 2019. It spent over two weeks in space approaching the Moon and everything fell apart right at the end, when the spacecraft started to suffer several failures. SpaceIL concluded that the cascading failures were triggered by a manual command.

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Second Time Is a Charm. SpaceIL's Raised $70M for Its Second Mission on the Moon - autoevolution
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