Built the Beresheet lunar lander for the non-profit organization SpaceIL.
Created: 2020-05-18
Updated: 2025-09-06
Company - Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI)
Product/Service - Beresheet
- Classification
- Cargo Transportation & Landers
- Category
- Transport Service (LEO-Moon)
Commercial Lunar Lander
- Fields
- Moon
- Status
- Cancelled, Launched
- First launch
- 2019
- Partners
- SpaceIL, OHB
OHB and IAI plan commercial lunar lander mission in late 2022. IAI along with the European partner OHB, plans to provide a commercial access service to the Moon to provide users with lunar exploration technology through an affordable service.
From moonshot to funding freeze: SpaceIL halts Beresheet 2 lunar mission, 2025-02-04.
- SpaceIL has suspended the engineering development of the Beresheet 2 mission—the planned second Israeli lunar lander—after failing to secure the necessary funding. As a result, the organization has been forced to lay off about 25 project employees and consultants and freeze contracts with key suppliers.
- Despite the setback, SpaceIL leaders and other stakeholders quickly vowed that another Beresheet mission would follow. Less than two years after the crash, the Beresheet 2 mission was unveiled at the Israeli president’s residence. This ambitious new mission was designed to include two lunar landers and a satellite that would remain in orbit around the Moon for several years.
- The project’s budget was expected to be similar to that of Beresheet 1, which cost approximately $100 million. Most of the funding came from a group of donors led by Patrick Drahi and Morris Kahn, the primary backer of the original mission. However, in mid-2023, the donor group announced it would no longer support the project. SpaceIL launched an urgent effort to find alternative funding, but the outbreak of war on October 7, 2023, made fundraising even more challenging.
Status Comment
Sources
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