Israeli non-profit vows new moon mission after 1st crashes

JERUSALEM – The Israeli start-up behind last week’s failed lunar landing has vowed to create a second mission to steer a privately funded spacecraft onto the moon.

Morris Kahn, Israeli billionaire and chairman of SpaceIL, the non-profit that undertook the botched lunar mission, says he’s already formed a task force of engineers and donors that will build another spacecraft. He called the new mission a lesson in persistence for “the younger generation.”

SpaceIL confirmed Monday that the crew will convene in the coming weeks to figure out how to fix the technical glitches that caused the first mission to crash, while still keeping the venture relatively fast and cheap.

The crash ended an ambitious eight-year effort to make Israel the fourth nation to land on the moon.