Following Israel’s failure to land on the Moon, SpaceIL announces it will not conduct the same mission; SpaceIL: A similar voyage to the Moon would not set the required threshold for a breakthrough mission, and therefore it has been decided to seek a more significant challenge.
Israel’s SpaceIL, which recently attempted to land a spacecraft on the Moon, announced it would not be conducting a second mission to the Moon but instead will be seeking “a more significant challenge”.
In April of this year, Beresheet (meaning Genesis), Israel’s first spacecraft to the Moon, failed to land. During the last 14 minutes of the mission, one of the engines was damaged, and communication lost just minutes before the historic landing. While the mission was not successful, it placed Israel in history as the 7th country to complete a lunar orbit following the USA, EU, former USSR, Japan, China, and India.
Just a few days following, SpaceIL announced its second mission, Beresheet 2.0. As of Wednesday, they canceled the mission. The researchers and heads of the space program releasing the statement, “The feedback that we received from many professional bodies around the world over the weeks since the landing indicates that the mission was perceived as exceptionally successful and broke many world records. A similar voyage to the Moon would not set the required threshold for a breakthrough mission and therefore it has been decided to seek a more significant challenge.” It took to Twitter to confirm, “This time, we will not go to the Moon. Beresheet’s journey to the Moon was already received as a successful, record-breaking journey. Instead, we will seek out another, significant objective for Beresheet 2.0. More details to follow…”
Content retrieved from: https://beholdisrael.org/spaceil-cancels-beresheet-2-for-more-significant-challenge/.
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