Just to clear something up, a small detail is slightly misrepresented in the fine article. NASA asked SpaceIL to include a laser retroreflector for use for future lunar navigation. Every gram counts on a craft like this, and SpaceIL is providing NASA a service by bringing the LRA down with it. The article frames the relationship as NASA doing SpaceIL a favor by giving them the LRA, which is a paperweight today and will continue to be so until suborbital lunar navigation becomes commonplace. I.e., not in the mission timeframe.

Note that NASA is in fact being very generous towards SpaceIL, by providing time on the DSN and other assets. I'm just clearing up the bit about the LRA.