Israel’s SpaceIL scores 1st Google Lunar XPRIZE verified launch contract

Astrobotic team associates said that they have prepared to hit their Griffin lander atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket probably by next year and Moon Express targets to launch its robotic MX-1 lander to the moon in 2017. However, with none of the teams able to secure a launch date by the end of 2014, the deadline was extended to December 31 2016.

The first team to successfully put its rover on the moon would win a prize of $20 million and the second would get $5 million.

SpaceIL, a nonprofit Israeli group working out of Tel Aviv University, is the first of 16 teams vying in the Lunar XPrize competition to finalize a contract with a launch provider and have technical and financial details approved by contest organizers, The Associated Press reported Wednesday.

[Satnews] “The magnitude of this achievement can not be overstated, representing an unprecedented and monumental commitment for a privately-funded organization…”

“Only three countries have soft-landed a vehicle on the surface of the Moon: the U.S., the former Soviet Union, and China”.

The key hurdle was finding an affordable ride to outer space without government funding, said Eran Privman, CEO of SpaceIL. This takes us one huge step closer to realize our vision of recreating an “Apollo effect” in Israel: “to inspire a new generation to pursue Science, Engineering, Technology, and Math (STEM)”.

SpaceIL says it was able to sign the launch agreement following an additional round of fundraising led by its two major contributors, Dr. Miriam and Sheldon G. Adelson Family Foundation and Morris Kahn’s Kahn Foundation. SpaceIL is sending its probe to the lunar surface via a deal with Spaceflight, which recently purchased the use of an entire Falcon 9 for a dedicate, satellite launch for a wide range of satellite developers.

SpaceIL intends to visit the lunar surface with a unique “hopping” probe, launched by a SpaceX rocket. “It’s very gratifying to play an integral part in SpaceIL’s quest to win the Google Lunar XPRIZE”. Israeli President Reuven Rivlin and XPRIZE President Bob Weiss also attended the conference.