Skip to main content

Israel will launch world’s first privately funded moon mission tomorrow

Beresheet payload
Image used with permission by copyright holder

This week will see the world’s first privately funded lunar mission launching from Cape Canaveral, Florida. The Israeli nonprofit SpaceIL, together with the aviation and aerospace manufacturer Israel Aerospace Industries, will be launching Israel’s first mission to the moon, aboard SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket on Thursday, February 21. Israel aims to join the United States, Russia, and China in successfully landing a craft on the surface of the moon.

The lunar lander is named Beresheet, Hebrew for “Genesis” or “in the beginning.” The unmanned craft aims to travel the two-month journey to the moon and land on the lunar surface for just two days, collecting data on the moon’s magnetic field as well as capturing images to be transmitted back to Earth.

Recommended Videos

To achieve this, the Beresheet payload will join two other payloads that are being taken onboard the Falcon 9 rocket. If the launch goes well, around 30 minutes after liftoff the craft will disengage from the rocket at 60,000 kilometers (approximately 37,000 miles) above the surface of the Earth. Two minutes after the separation, the craft should be able to communicate with its mission control, which is located in Yehud, Israel. From there, the craft will use its own power to carry it on its long journey to the moon.

The SpaceIL organization was formed in 2011 and was a finalist in Google’s now-defunct Lunar XPRIZE challenge to design and built an unmanned lunar spacecraft. Although none of the international teams were able to complete the challenge before the deadline and claim the $30 million prize, the Israeli team continued with its development project and is now ready to see the fruits of its labor.

This launch is significant not only because of its privately funded nature, but also because Israel is a notably smaller country than the other superpowers who have launched lunar missions in the past. The project will surely be an inspiration to countries like Pakistan and South Korea which have up-and-coming space programs of their own.

“From the tiny country of Israel and with minimal budget, we intend to accomplish what only three superpowers have done before,” SpaceX told The Verge. “We are pioneers.”

If you’re interested in watching this slice of space history unfold live, check out our post on where to watch the SpaceX launch.

Georgina Torbet
Georgina has been the space writer at Digital Trends space writer for six years, covering human space exploration, planetary…
SpaceX suddenly aborts rocket launch due to errant cruise ship
spacex aborts falcon 9 mission just seconds from launch jan 2022

SpaceX called off its latest mission just 33 seconds from launch on Sunday evening.

However, it wasn’t because of an issue with SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket. Rather, the team spotted a cruise liner in the so-called "hazard area" close to the launch site in Cape Canaveral, Florida.

Read more
SpaceX rocket set to slam into the moon at 5,000 mph
A Falcon 9 rocket lifts off on May 30, for the first crewed test flight of the Crew Dragon capsule. flight

While SpaceX has nailed the process of landing the first stage of its Falcon 9 rocket back on terra firma, the second stage is left to burn up in the atmosphere as it falls back to Earth. At least, that’s what usually happens.

A mission launched by SpaceX in 2015 to send the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Deep Space Climate Observatory into a distant orbit completed all of the necessary deployment steps, but then it went a bit awry, according to an Ars Technica report.

Read more
Watch highlights of SpaceX’s spectacular Starlink night launch
A SpaceX rocket heading to space.

SpaceX has just launched another batch of Starlink internet satellites to space.

A Falcon 9 rocket departed Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 9:02 p.m. ET on Tuesday night.

Read more