Like many Israeli citizens, I was excited on Monday when it was announced that Israel had its second astronaut, pilot Eytan Stibbe.

Eytan, who is slated to take off for the International Space Station in about a year, will be another chapter of Israel's journey to space, which started when the late Ilan Ramon set off on the Columbia shuttle.

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The journey to space is a national one, not a person one. It is a journey to the hearts of millions of Israeli citizens, a journey of inspiration, breaking barriers, and reaching new heights. So no one was happier than I was to see more Israeli organizations joining us on this journey and Israeli society pushing us forward.

On the other hand, every journey need individuals who will move it along – At Beresheet 1 we could not have been able to fulfill our vision without the donors, particularly Morris Kahn and Dr. Miriam and Sheldon Adelson, without our partners, workers, volunteers, and supporters. This time, it's Eytan, Ran, Inbal, Maya, the Ramon family, the people from the Ramon Foundation, the Science and Technology Ministry, the Israel Space Agency, and of course plenty of others.

Personally, amid all this excitement, I really miss the late Rona Ramon, who started the Ramon Foundation and was a true partner in our dream, when Beresheet was still in its infancy. Her special personality shone on everyone who met her and gave everyone a sense that any challenge was surmountable.

Rona, through the Ramon Foundation, saw an opportunity to inspire the young generation and encourage it to dream big. On Monday, another dream came true. Since we began the Beresheet project, we have traveled all over the country and met with thousands of youngsters who "caught" the space bug and chose to take part in the journey. I have no doubt that Monday's announcement of a second Israeli astronaut will allow them to keep dreaming. Maybe the third astronaut will be a woman.

We need more astronauts, more engineers, more scientists, and hundreds of thousands more children who will look up, dare to dream, and not stop until they make their dreams come true. On Monday, as a nation, we took another step forward – and the journey continues.

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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.

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