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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]
(Score: 2) by RamiK on Monday April 15 2019, @02:17PM
Private... Public... It's a meaningless distinction in such a small nation. Most likely, it's government aided tax evasion scheme for some millionaire where it's structured like a non-profit foundation that the donor puts in a certain amount of money they'd otherwise lose to American tax authorities and in return receives massive tax cuts in their related Israeli businesses and a few contracts they'd otherwise wouldn't win.
To be fair though, NASA is a pork farm too so it's not like it's new or anything.
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