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posted by martyb on Monday April 15 2019, @06:50AM   Printer-friendly
from the little-country,-big-dreams dept.

The team that built the ill fated-Beresheet lander which failed in its landing attempt on Thursday will build another lander.

"We're going to actually build a new halalit — a new spacecraft," billionaire businessman and philanthropist Morris Kahn said in a video statement posted on Twitter by the nonprofit group SpaceIL. "We're going to put it on the moon, and we're going to complete the mission."

The privately-funded Beresheet lander suffered a main engine problem during descent. Although the team was able to get the engine going again, it was too late and Beresheet impacted the surface at 310 mph (500km/h)

The team will still receive a $1 million award from the X Prize Foundation. Apparently this technically qualified as success because:

"I think they managed to touch the surface of the moon, and that's what we were looking for for our Moonshot Award," said X Prize CEO Anousheh Ansari.

Beresheet cost about $100 million in total. 40% of this was funded by Kahn himself.

See also: Israel's Moon probe snaps a final photo before crashing

Previously: Private Spacecraft Failed Moon Landing Today [UPDATED]


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  • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 15 2019, @02:05PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 15 2019, @02:05PM (#829816)

    I saw them celebrating during the "landing"

    They were also celebrating when the towers fell. Search for "five dancing israelis", and they too were taking selfies.

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