SpaceIL

Update: SpaceIL pushes lunar lander launch to early 2019

Israel-based SpaceIL has secured a ride to space. The organization, which designed a lunar lander as part of the Google Lunar XPRIZE, will ride as a secondary payload on a SpaceX Falcon 9 sometime in early 2019, according to rideshare logistics firm Spaceflight. Spaceflight announced last week it will begin offering rideshare services to geosynchronous transfer orbit (GTO) every 12-18 months, “or as customer demand requires.”  The first such flight

The world’s first privately-funded lunar lander to launch by end of 2018

SpaceIL and Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) announced the country’s first uncrewed lunar mission will launch from Cape Canaveral in December 2018. SpaceIL is an Israeli-based nonprofit start-up and alum of the Google Lunar XPRIZE. If successful, the start-up will become the first participant in the Google Lunar XPRIZE to reach the Moon. It will also be the world’s first privately-funded lunar mission to reach the Moon. SpaceIL, which was founded