Why It'll Take Israel's Lunar Lander 8 Weeks to Get to the Moon

Anonymous — Fri, 22 Feb 2019 18:59:47 +0000

Why It'll Take Israel's Lunar Lander 8 Weeks to Get to the Moon Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 02/22/2019 - 11:59

Mike Wall

From Space.com: An Israeli moon lander just took to the skies, but we'll all have to wait nearly two months for its historic touchdown try.

The robotic lander, called Beresheet, launched atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket yesterday evening (Feb. 21) from Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. If everything goes according to plan, Beresheet will zip around Earth for about six weeks in ever-widening orbits before heading toward its final destination. The craft will arrive in lunar orbit in early April and attempt a landing on the 11th of that month.

Beresheet will end up putting about 4 million miles (6.5 million kilometers) on its odometer when all is said and done. That's more than any other moon-landing mission, said the spacecraft's builders, the nonprofit group SpaceIL and the company Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI). Read more...

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Israeli Lunar Lander on its way to the Moon

Anonymous — Thu, 21 Feb 2019 19:04:56 +0000

Israeli Lunar Lander on its way to the Moon Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 02/21/2019 - 12:04

Marcia Smith

From Space Policy Online.com: A robotic lunar lander built by an Israeli non-profit, SpaceIL, is on its way to the Moon tonight. Launched as a rideshare on a SpaceX launch of an Indonesian communications satellite, Beresheet will take about two months to reach lunar orbit and then descend to a soft landing on the Moon. It is Israel’s first attempt at lunar exploration and carries a NASA laser retroreflector as part of its payload. NASA also announced today 12 experiments it has ready to fly on U.S. private sector spacecraft as part of its Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative.

SpaceIL began its lunar lander effort as part of the Google Lunar X-Prize contest, which ended in 2018 after no one won the $20 million Grand Prize despite years of extending the deadline.

NASA signed an agreement with the Israeli Space Agency in October to include a laser retroreflector on Beresheet and aid in tracking the spacecraft with the Deep Space Network. In return, SpaceIL will share data from SpaceIL’s lunar magnetometer instrument. NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) will also attempt to make scientific measurements of Beresheet once it is on the surface. Read more...

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Why It'll Take Israel's Lunar Lander 8 Weeks to Get to the Moon

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Israeli Lunar Lander on its way to the Moon

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