Cape Canaveral: Israel’s first spacecraft designed to land on the moon has blasted off from Florida in the first privately funded lunar mission, as the Jewish state seeks to become only the fourth nation to reach the surface of Earth’s natural satellite.
The unmanned robotic explorer named Beresheet – Hebrew for “genesis” or “in the beginning” – lifted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 8.45pm local time (12.45pm on Friday) atop a Falcon 9 rocket launched by Elon Musk’s SpaceX company.
Indonesia’s Nusantara Satu communications satellite was the main cargo aboard the rocket, which illuminated the sky as it took flight, but the lunar lander – a first not just for Israel but commercial space – generated the buzz. The US Air Force also has a small research spacecraft on board for a one-year mission in orbit around Earth.
The 585-kilogram, dishwasher-sized lunar lander was built by Israeli non-profit space venture SpaceIL and state-owned defence contractor Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) with $US100 million furnished almost entirely by private donors.
Beresheet is due to arrive on the near side of the moon in April following a two-month, 6.5 million-kilometre journey.
Read the article in The Sydney Morning Herald (with the help of
Reuters, The Orlando Sentinel, NASA, AP ).