SpaceIL, the nonprofit Israeli initiative whose spacecraft crashed on the moon two years ago, has said that it has secured 70 million dollars (£50 million) in funding to make a second attempt at a lunar landing. SpaceIL said the new pledges means that it has raised almost all of the 100 million dollars (£71.9 million) it estimates is needed for the mission to meet its 2024 launch target. According to the Davidson Institute, a branch of the Weizmann Institute of Science research university in Israel, the spacecraft suffered a string of technical malfunctions. “The Beresheet project is my life’s mission, so I decided to take it up again. I plan to do everything that is within my power to take Israel back to the moon, this time for a historic double landing,” said Mr Kahn, who is chairman of SpaceIL.

Source: Irish Independent July 11, 2021 17:03 UTC