Israel’s SpaceIL will not try second moonshot
Its spacecraft attempted to be the first privately funded lunar mission, but failed to make a controlled landing on the lunar surface.
The Israeli company that attempted to put an unmanned craft on the moon says it will not try a second moonshot.
SpaceIL said its lunar mission in April has been widely hailed as “an exceptional success”, despite crash landing on the moon.
It says that “an attempt to repeat a trip to the moon is not enough of a challenge” and will instead search for a different mission.
The SpaceIL “Beresheet” spacecraft attempted to be the first privately funded lunar mission, but failed to make a controlled landing on the lunar surface.
The company launched in 2011 and initially competed for Google’s Lunar Xprize, a 20 million US dollar (£15.75 million) challenge for private companies to land on the moon.