$ 1 Million "Moonshot" Award for SpaceIL's Historic Events

The Israeli satellite Beresheet may not have landed on the moon as planned Thursday night, but its success in the lunar orbit and its attempt to land on the moon have always made history as the first space vehicle funded by the private sector to take these steps. XPRIZE recognizes these historic achievements by awarding a $ 1 million Moonshot Prize to SpaceIL, the nonprofit organization behind Beresheet.

"SpaceIL's mission has not only touched the moon, it has also touched the life and heart of a whole world who watched it," said Peter Diamandis, executive chairman and founder of XPRIZE. "The legacy that SpaceIL will leave in the future of the space industry is considerable." The ability of this team to build a lunar lander for $ 100 million and fewer than 50 engineers is remarkable, a leap forward to affordable and accessible space exploration Congratulations to Morris Kahn, their main benefactor and the entire SpaceIL team for all their accomplishments – we are very proud of it. "

XPRIZE, founded in 1994, is a non-profit organization based in the United States that designs public competitions to promote technological developments for the benefit of humanity. The Moonshot Award was inspired by SpaceIL and was specially created to promote an XPRIZE team for a "moonshot" technological achievement outside of an XPRIZE contest.

"To showcase the passion and perseverance of the team, we are giving this $ 1 million Moonshot Award to the SpaceIL team at our annual Visioneering Summit in October 2019, in Toronto, Ontario. hope that they will use these funds as seed money for their educational project or Beresheet 2.0, a second attempt to fulfill the mission. "said Anousheh Ansari, managing director of XPRIZE.

"We are very proud and honored to have served as a catalyst for this mission, not only to continue exploring the private space, but also to increase access to education, career opportunities and role models. this area, which is quite in line with the values ​​of the XPRIZE foundation. "

SpaceIL initially participated in the Google Lunar XPrize, worth $ 20 million, which ended last year without the win, as none of the teams were able to to launch its mission before the deadline of March 2018.

Nevertheless, SpaceIL decided to continue its research despite everything, in partnership with Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), the Israeli space agency, as well as the Israeli Ministry of Science and Technology.