Israel’s Beresheet spacecraft is looking good as it gets closer to becoming one of the only times a country ever landed a probe on the moon. So far, the craft is moving into position and even snapped some out-of-this-world photos of the far side of the moon, Fox News reports.
The Israeli probe made into into the lunar orbit on April 4 and sent the beauty of the moon back to Earth, and Fox News adds that the probe should touch down at around 4 p.m. New York time this Thursday. So when you get out of work, there may be reason to head to happy hour and celebrate an Israeli accomplishment.
According to Fox News, along with America, the old Soviet Union and China remain the only countries to make “soft landings” on the moon’s surface. This unmanned probe would make Israel a part of that rarified air. Beresheet means beginning, which is fitting for this first lunar voyage.
Project SpaceIL, which has developed the spacecraft, was launched as a national project at Beit HaNasi, with its president, Morris Kahan, endowing the project to the State of Israel just days ahead of its historic launch into space.
Israeli President Reuven Rivlin was presented with a copy of a time capsule that will travel to the moon with the first Israeli spacecraft. The time capsule consists of three discs, each containing hundreds of digital files, including Israeli national symbols like Israel’s Declaration of Independence, the Bible, Israel’s national anthem “Hatikvah” and the Israeli flag.
“This is a defining moment, and in two days the first Israeli spacecraft will be launched to the moon,” Rivlin said before the launch a few months ago. “Until now, only the superpowers – the United States, the former Soviet Union and China – have landed on the moon. If all goes well, the small and young State of Israel will be the fourth country in history to land a spacecraft on the moon.”
The Jewish Voice had previously reported that Israel Aerospace Industries’ first lunar spacecraft began a historic journey to the moon when it was transported in a cargo plane from Ben Gurion Airport to Orlando, Fla.
SpaceIL and IAI had to pack the 180-kilogram spacecraft into a special temperature-controlled, sterile shipping container, built to protect the spacecraft and ensure it arrives safely at the launch site. After landing at Orlando International Airport, the spacecraft was then driven to the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, where it was added as a secondary payload by launch service provider Spaceflight. It was launched on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket together with a geostationary communications satellite built by SSL.
The probe will touch down somewhere within Mare Serenitatis, which is up in the moon’s northern hemisphere. SpaceIL said that magnetic anomalies near the site would allow an onboard magnetometer device to take measurements in order to collect data for one of its science experiments. This data will be shared with NASA, and the device itself was developed with Israel’s Weizmann Institute of Science, Fox News reports.
