Israel’s SpaceIL is back on track to launch a second spacecraft to the moon in mid-2024 and the United Arab Emirates should join the initiative, the organization’s chairman Morris Kahn told the Global Investment Forum in Dubai on Wednesday.
“SpaceIL has decided to launch Beresheet 2,” the 91-year old philanthropist and entrepreneur said at the conference jointly organized by The Jerusalem Post and the Khaleej Times. Earlier this year the 2024 launch was canceled, but according to Kahn it will head to the moon’s orbit as scheduled.
In an onstage interview with Jerusalem Report Editor in Chief Steve Linde, Kahn was asked if he would want the UAE to participate in Israel’s moon mission.
“It would be wonderful if we could develop a space program that would be a combination of Israel and the Arab world,” Kahn said.
“I would welcome it, if it fits in with the program the Emirates have. They have an ambitious program,” Kahn said, adding that such a joint initiative would be the “pinnacle of my achievement and my involvement in space.”
Both the UAE and Israel have set their eyes on the stars and have the most advanced programs in the Middle East.
Abu Dhabi’s New Hope probe reached Mars’ orbit in February of this year while Israel’s entered the moon’s orbit in 2019. It’s small unmanned spacecraft named Beresheet malfunctioned and crashed on the moon just prior to its highly anticipated landing.
The Beresheet project, organized by the nonprofit SpaceIL, is the first private space initiative and the first Israeli solo attempt to reach the moon. Kahn was one of the major donors of its 2019 mission, estimated to have cost $100 million.
Last year’s normalization deal between the two countries, under the rubric of the Abraham Accords, has opened the path to joint ventures, and the UAE has eyed possible participation in Israel’s Beresheet program.
The UAE’s March pledge of a $10 billion investment in Israel included earmarking funds for space projects.
“When they said the spacecraft that we launched crashed [in 2019], I said it did not crash, it had a hard landing,” Kahn joked. “This time we have a spacecraft that will orbit the moon for two or three years,” he explained, adding that it would collect scientific data and have two smaller crafts that would be attached.
The SpaceIL lunar program has been executed in conjunction with the government, including Israel’s Space Agency and Israel Aerospace Industries.
Kahn also spoke about an operating program that he has supported, that involved genetic research with the Bedouin community in Israel that helped reduce infant death rate by 35%. This could be adapted for the UAE, he said. “There is a lot that we can do to help the UAE.”
Kahn said his philanthropic projects are what bring him the most satisfaction in life. Kahn works with Israel’s Bedouin communities to educate families about genetic diseases affecting them, and said his research has helped reduce infant deaths by about 35%. “The Bedouin immigrated to Israel from this area 400 years ago, and they have the same genetic pool as Emiratis,” Kahn told the audience. “I think that we can do a lot to help Emiratis also, because we share.”
His Save a Child’s Heart project has saved more than 5,700 children from countries where access to pediatric heart care is limited or nonexistent. That project was recognized for its humanitarian work by the United Nations, but “when you see the gratitude from a mother who brings her child who is going to die, and she brings him back home as a vibrant child, the pleasure in seeing that really is the driver for continuing.”
Kahn has also provided free eye surgeries for some 6,000 people in the Ethiopian town of Jinka. “When I turned 80, I gave myself a birthday present,” Kahn said, “I was in Africa, and I learned about how diseases that leave a person blind can be saved with an operation of about 25 minutes, and I said, that’s not just a nice thing to do, it would be criminal for me not to. The first time we went there, we did operations on 600 people, and I’ve been going for ten years.”
Asked for his advice to others who want to follow his example and make the world a better place, Kahn said, “if I look back at my life and I ask myself ‘what have you done that really has meaning?’ I think I’ve touched the lives indirectly of lots of people.”