Israeli moon landing: "It's a huge success to have come this far."

Bremen, 12. April 2019. The landing of the Israeli space probe "Beresheet" on the moon did not go according to plan, but the mission itself was a great success and triggered a great deal of enthusiasm - also among Marco Fuchs, CEO of the space company OHB SE, whose company signed a cooperation agreement with the Israeli space company IAI at the end of January. "Congratulations to everyone involved in this great mission," said Fuchs. "Beresheet has had many significant successes. OHB is very proud to be part of this mission. I am convinced that the history of Beresheet is not yet over. It is a huge success to have come this far. The mission will provide a great impetus to continue - and OHB is determined to be involved in the next mission as well."

Under the agreement signed in January, the companies will offer a commercial Lunar Surface Access Service (LSAS) for payloads up to 150 kg to the European Space Agency (ESA). OHB, based on its long successful heritage in space missions, will act as prime contractor and will manage the work with ESA and the developers of scientific payloads for the lunar lander. IAI, for its part, will provide a version of its lunar lander which was co-developed and built for SpaceIL. OHB will manage the service commercialization and mission definition with prospective users; and manage the project and mission from payload choice and integration to launch and mission operations. As an outlook a support on the lunar lander is also envisaged.