SpaceIL

SpaceIL
Formation2011; 13 years ago (2011)
FoundersYariv Bash, Kfir Damari, Yonatan Winetraub
Founded atIsrael
TypeNon-profit
Legal statusActive
PurposePromote STEM by building a robotic lunar lander
HeadquartersIsrael
Location
Morris Kahn (Chairman), Ido Anteby (CEO), Daniel Zajfman, Arie Halsband, Isaac Ben-Israel, Kobi Levi, Ilan Lior, Lynne Harrison
Budget
$100,000,000
Staff30 [1] (in 2019)
Websitespaceil.com

SpaceIL[2] is an Israeli organization, established in 2011, that competed in the Google Lunar X Prize (GLXP) contest to land a spacecraft on the Moon.[3]

SpaceIL successfully launched its Beresheet lander on 22 February 2019 at 01:45 UTC; it entered lunar orbit on 4 April 2019 at 14:18 UTC. On 11 April 2019, during the landing procedure, a problem occurred in the final minutes of flight. Communications were lost with the spacecraft, long enough for the braking process to fail, and the vehicle crashed on the lunar surface.[4][5][6] The Beresheet mission had included plans to measure the Moon's magnetic field at the landing site, and was carrying a laser retroreflector, and a "time capsule" containing analog and digital information, created by the Arch Mission Foundation. Beresheet was the first Israeli spacecraft to travel beyond Earth's orbit and was the first privately funded landing on the Moon.[7] Though the spacecraft crashed, Israel became the seventh country to make lunar orbit and the fourth country, after the Soviet Union, the United States, and China to attempt a soft landing on the Moon.[8]

Two days after the failed attempt to soft land on the Moon, SpaceIL announced plans for a second attempt, Beresheet 2.[9]

The SpaceIL team was founded as a nonprofit organization wishing to promote scientific and technological education in Israel.[10] Its total budget for the mission is estimated at US$95 million, provided by Israeli billionaire Morris Kahn and other philanthropists, as well as the Israel Space Agency (ISA).[11]

  1. ^ SpaceIL Team. Archived 7 March 2019 at the Wayback Machine Accessed on 6 March 2019.
  2. ^ "Triumphing Challenges on The Way to the Moon - The Incredible Story of SpaceIL (interview with co-founder Kfir Damari on Startup Camel Podcast)". Startup Camel. Archived from the original on 9 May 2015. Retrieved 28 April 2015.
  3. ^ "One Giant Step for Israel as Company Plots Moon Launch". The Forward. 30 April 2013. Retrieved 5 June 2013.
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference nsf20190221 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Pietrobon, Steven (8 December 2018). "United States Commercial ELV Launch Manifest". Retrieved 8 December 2018.
  6. ^ SpaceX Falcon 9 rideshare launch to send a commercial lander to the Moon in 2019. Eric Ralph, Teslarati. 12 September 2018.
  7. ^ Cite error: The named reference nbc20190214 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  8. ^ Cite error: The named reference nyt20190221 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  9. ^ "SpaceIL chief: 'Beresheet 2 starts tomorrow; we'll put our flag on the moon'". The Times of Israel. Retrieved 13 April 2019.
  10. ^ "SpaceIL | מנחיתים חללית ישראלית ראשונה על הירח". www.spaceil.com. Retrieved 12 September 2017.
  11. ^ Cite error: The named reference BBC 21-02-2019 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).