Last month, SpaceX launched the first ever private lunar lander into space.

If it survives its journey and touches down on the moon on April 11 as planned, Israel will become the fourth nation in history to pull off a moon landing.

According to Business Insider, “the dishwasher-sized robot is a four-legged lander called Beresheet, which is Hebrew for “in the beginning” – the first words of the Bible”.

The project was funded by Morris Khan – and if you’ve never heard that name before, you’ll know it now.

According to his bio on Aurum Ventures, Morris Khan is a South-African born billionaire. He founded Golden Pages Israel, Amdocs, the Aurec Group, Coral World and other companies.

He also started Coral World through which he founded several marine parks around the world, including the underwater observatory in Eilat, Israel.

In recent years Khan has focussed a lot of his energy on philanthropy. His philanthropic interests include cutting-edge cancer stem cell research, including the establishment of a laboratory for fertility preservation among cancer patients; a biomedical research laboratory focusing on genetics and genetic mapping; the establishment of Israel’s National Institute for Biotechnology, and the establishment of a Center for Systems Biology of the Human Cell at the world-renowned Weizmann Institute.

His latest venture was landing a lunar robot on the moon:

“I wanted to show that Israel – this little country with a population of about 6 or 8 million people – could actually do a job that was only done by three major powers in the world: Russia, China, and the United States,” Kahn told Business Insider before the launch. “Could Israel innovate and actually achieve this objective with a smaller budget, and being a smaller country, and without a big space industry backing it?”

Although Beresheet has experienced a number of problems since its launch, it did manage to send back a stunning selfie with earth:

Kahn says that the scientific mission is not as important as what Beresheet’s landing would symbolise.

“This project of ours will take Israel into deep space. I think this is a new frontier and actually what we’re doing – this is the first nongovernmental project to go to the moon,” Kahn said. “I think others will follow us. In fact, I’m sure others will follow us.”

The mission cost about $100 million, which is why Khan’s contribution was so important.

Whether Beresheet completes its journey or not remains to be seen.

[source:businessinsider&aurumventures]