The Genesis spacecraft has taken off on a commercial SpaceX rocket to begin the long journey to the moon. Dozens of volunteers and supporters came to Florida and hundreds more watched the launch from Israel. This journey essentially began more than eight years ago. When Yariv Bash, Yonatan Winetraub and I first started, we dreamed of reaching the moon in two years.
It's a good thing we were optimistic because otherwise, I'm not sure we would have even embarked on such a mission. For a long time, we worked on the engineering aspect, constantly discovering that we were missing a different component. The spacecraft would get bigger, and again we'd go back to the drawing board. The distance to the moon always felt "two years away."
Even after we purchased the launch (a "ticket to space"), it was repeatedly postponed – which tends to happen with engineering and space missions. The feeling was that we always had more time, and now, suddenly it has happened. It's been a path of ups and downs, dozens of helping hands, hundreds of volunteers, dedicated supporters, a brave partnership with Israel Aerospace Industries; Morris Kahn; the Adelson, Schusterman, and Adams families; and many more.
We are here not just because it is thrilling to solve impossible problems, but mainly to realize the vision of showing the next generation and millions of students that science and engineering are fun, and can help change the world. At this moment we can show the world Israel's incredible capabilities in outer space. Genesis will be the first Israeli spacecraft to land on the moon, and also the first privately funded spacecraft to do so.
We have already felt the impact – in recent weeks we received hundreds of blessings and video messages from excited students in classrooms across the country. When we began, we weren't married, we didn't have kids. I couldn't have imagined being able to fly into space with my entire family and I couldn't have imagined that my oldest son, now 5, would be able to see the launch with his own eyes. And yet, here we are.
