Author: Mike Wall / Source: Space.com
(Image: © SpaceIL/IAI)
Israel will keep shooting for the moon.
The team behind the nation’s Beresheet probe, which crashed during its historic lunar-landing attempt Thursday (April 11), will take another crack at Earth’s nearest neighbor.
“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 work on Beresheet 2.0 will begin immediately, he added: the team is meeting this weekend to start planning the new project.
Kahn is president of SpaceIL, which built and operated Beresheet along with the company Israel Aerospace Industries. He also funded the mission to a large degree, covering about 40% of its total $100 million price tag.
The dream goes on! Morris Kahn just announced the launching of Beresheet 2.0 #Beresheet2.0 #IsraeltotheMoon pic.twitter.com/fHlo3jeQ4W
The 5-foot-tall (1.5 meters) Beresheet, whose name means “in the beginning” in Hebrew, launched to Earth orbit atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket in February.
The little robot spent the next six weeks pushing its…
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