Israeli firm plans lunar landing next year

An Israeli organisation said Tuesday that it hopes to become the first non- governmental entity to land a spacecraft on the moon when it attempts to launch a module later this year. SpaceIL and the stateowned Israel Aerospace Industries plan to launch their unmanned craft in December, the team said at a press conference at an IAI facility outside Tel Aviv. If successful, Israel would become the fourth country to land a craft on the moon, after the US, the Soviet Union and China. SpaceIL will ship the as yet unnamed module to the United States in November ahead of the launch. The 585 kilogram ( 1,289 pounds) landing craft will piggyback on a SpaceX Falcon rocket to enter Earth's orbit, then slingshot around the planet several times to reach the moon. Upon landing, the craft will relay photographs and collect data about the moon's magnetism for research by Israel's Weizmann Institute. The $ 95 million project, largely funded by South African- Israeli billionaire Morris Kahn and other donors, aims to land on the moon on February 13. Kahn said it would be "a tremendous achievement." SpaceIL was founded in 2011 and originally vied for Google's Lunar Xprize, which challenged private companies to try to land an unmanned spacecraft on the moon. But the $ 20 million competition was scrapped by the tech giant. Despite financial pitfalls that nearly saw SpaceIL's spacecraft grounded permanently, the team is confident that December's launch will take place on time.