WATCH: Israeli Moon Lander Launches Successfully
The Beresheet moon lander launches successfully from Cape Canaveral. Image by Facebook
(JTA) — An Israeli spacecraft is officially on its way to the moon.
The lunar lander built by SpaceIL, an Israeli organization hoping to send a craft to the moon, successfully launched aboard a SpaceX rocket from Cape Canaveral in Florida Thursday night. If it reaches the moon and lands successfully, it will make Israel the fourth country ever — after the Soviet Union, the U.S. and China, to land a spacecraft on the moon.
After separating from the rocket, the SpaceIL craft, named “Beresheet,” Hebrew for Genesis, will travel around Earth in progressively larger orbits, eventually entering the moon’s orbit and touching down for a landing there. That is expected to occur on April 11.
“Once, it seemed imaginary; today this is reality,” said Israeli President Reuven Rivlin in a video after the launch. “Beresheet landing on the moon is a giant step for all of Israel. This is a first-rate technological, scientific and and educational project.”
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
