"Bereshit-2", according to the plans of the developers, should land in 2024
TEL AVIV, December 9. /TASS/. Israel plans to launch its second lunar station, Bereshit-2, in 2024. SpaceIL writes about This on Twitter.
"We are proud to announce that Bereshit-2 will go to the moon in the first half of 2024." It will include two lander modules, each of which will conduct experiments on the surface of the moon, as well as an Orbiter that will remain [in the moon's orbit] for several years," the report said.
The project was presented by the President of Israel Reuven Rivlin. SpaceIL will work with Israel Aerospace Industries and the Israeli space Agency on Bereshit 2. "We hope to safely send three spacecraft to the moon," Rivlin's press service quoted.
[cloud=bc]We are proud to announce that #Beresheet2 is going to head to the Moon in the first half of 2024! It will include two landers, each of which will carry out experiments on the surface of the Moon, and an orbiter that will stay for several years. #IsraelToTheMoon pic.twitter.com/fdenHdHmmV
- Israel To The Moon (@TeamSpaceIL) December 9, 2020
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SpaceIL's plans to launch another spacecraft to the moon were announced on April 13, 2019, a few days after the first probe, Bereshit, crashed on the surface of the Earth's satellite.
Bereshit is the first private spacecraft in the history of mankind to reach the moon. It was created as part of the Google Lunar X Prize competition in 2011. This award was planned to be paid to a team that could deliver a lander to the moon without government funding. An important condition was that the device must travel 500 meters on the surface of the Earth's satellite by March 31, 2018. However, none of the contestants met the deadline. Therefore, the Foundation decided not to award the prize to anyone.
However, SpaceIL continued to work on the device. It was launched into space on February 22, 2019 on a Falcon 9 rocket. two and a half months Later, on April 11, the device was supposed to make a soft landing on the surface of the moon and work there for two days. It is so much calculated battery "Bereshit".
On April 4, it successfully entered lunar orbit, but a week later, an attempt to make a soft landing ended in a crash. According to preliminary data, this happened due to a malfunction in the main engine.
After that, the Google Lunar XPrize Fund decided to pay SpaceIL a million dollars, even though the required 500 meters of the device on the moon did not pass.