Friday, April 12, 2019

XPRIZE Gives $1M Award To Israeli Moon Landing Team

Los Angeles-based XPRIZE, which organizes prize competitions to inspire people to advance technology to help change the world, said last night that it has awarded a $1M "Moonshot Award" to SpaceIL, the Israeli team which attempted a moon landing on Thursday. XPRIZE said it decided to recognize the successful lunar orbit and (not-so-successful) landing attempt for its contribution to private space exploration. SpaceIL was inspired to launch its lunar lander to the moon, based on the Google Lunar XPRIZE, a $30M prize meant to spur private eploration of the moon. SpaceIL's robotic lander, Beresheet, almost made it to the surface of the moon intact, but experienced a last minute main engine failure. XPRIZE founder Peter H. Diamandis said, in a statement, "This team's ability to build a lunar lander for $100 million and less than 50 engineers is remarkable, a leap forward towards affordable and accessible space exploration." (Image: Last image transmitted from Beresheet before its crash landing into the moon)