Israel’s private space program could be forced to shut down its flagship lunar mission in the coming weeks after its main donors abandoned the project, its co-founder told Bloomberg on Wednesday.
(Bloomberg) — Israel’s private space program could be forced to shut down its flagship lunar mission in the coming weeks after its main donors abandoned the project, its co-founder told Bloomberg on Wednesday.
SpaceIL, the nonprofit organization behind the $100 million program, said the shortfall is imperiling their second moonshot, known as Beresheet (Genesis) II, which was scheduled for launch in late 2025.
“Our donors decided that they will not continue their donation after giving $45 million from an original pledge of $90 million. And this caught us by surprise, this was not planned,” SpaceIL co-founder Kfir Damari in an interview.
SpaceIL’s first attempt at becoming the world’s first privately funded lunar landing crashed spectacularly on the moon’s surface in 2019. The unmanned spacecraft, launched atop a SpaceX rocket, experienced engine failure during landing, the company said.
Since then, companies in Japan and India have also unsuccessfully tried to land private rovers on the moon. Should the second Israeli mission go ahead, the plan is for two rovers to land in different locations on the moon, one of them on its so-called “dark side,” an accomplishment only achieved by China.
Donors including Israeli-South African philanthropist Morris Kahn, who also serves as SpaceIL’s chairman, and the Patrick and Lina Drahi Foundation pulled out of the project last month after giving the nonprofit a few weeks’ notice, according to Damari.
“The explanation we received is that due to ‘current times’ they’ve decided to redirect their donation to other causes without talking about specific causes,” he said.
Damari said he understood this to refer to both global financial uncertainty and the political tensions in Israel over the government’s plans to make sweeping changes to the judicial system, which have sparked mass protests.
In a statement announcing the decision, Kahn said “these times obligate us to invest our resources and time in other philanthropical projects,” without elaborating. The Patrick and Lina Drahi Foundation did not respond to an emailed request for comment.
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