Beresheet 2


Beresheet 2 is a planned private space mission originally intended to land a spacecraft on the Moon.

History

The mission was announced by the SpaceIL voluntary association, shortly after the conclusion of the first Beresheet mission in April 2019. It was announced on 26 June 2019, that the mission will not target the Moon, and instead it will be to another undisclosed object. On 25 November 2019, it was simultaneously announced that the Moon would indeed be the target of Beresheet 2, and that SpaceIL plans to send another lander to Mars.
As with the first mission, the current main source of funding for Beresheet 2 is businessman Morris Kahn.
On 16 January 2020, SpaceIL announced that they have been officially started to work on Beresheet 2 as they were given the first million dollars for the spacecraft.
On 5 February 2020, Shimon Sarid was appointed as CEO of SpaceIL. In this role Sarid will lead the Beresheet 2 project with the goal of getting an unmanned spacecraft to the Moon; and soft-landing it.