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$1 million prize awaits Israeli team if moon landing works - The Times of Israel

The Israeli team aiming to land a spacecraft on the moon in two weeks can now expect more than glory if it works. How about a cool $1 million?

The XPrize Foundation announced Thursday it’s offering the hefty prize for a successful lunar landing.

Israel’s privately financed spacecraft Beresheet — Hebrew for “Genesis” — launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida last month. It’s on track to land on the moon April 11, which would make Israel only the fourth country to successfully pull off a lunar landing.

SpaceIL, the Israeli nonprofit behind Beresheet, made the final cut in the $20 million Google Lunar XPrize competition, which ended last year without a winner. The new award was inspired by SpaceIL’s perseverance.

On Sunday, engineers with SpaceIL and Israel Aerospace Industries released a number of photos from Beresheet’s camera, including a selfie with the Earth from 265,000 kilometers (165,000 miles) above the planet’s surface and a video of the sunrise in space.

Photo taken by the Beresheet spacecraft in which an Israeli flag can be seen on a plaque with the inscription, ‘Am Yisrael Chai,’ or ‘The Jewish People Lives,’ and in English, ‘Small country, big dreams,’ taken 37,600 kilometers from Earth. (Courtesy SpaceIL/IAI)

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