Israel headed to the Moon this evening.

[PHC1]

SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will deliver the Israeli "Beresheet" moon rover into orbit this evening. This makes the small and privately funded SpaceIL the first private company to attempt to get to the moon. The budget was a rather modest $100M

After the Beresheet is in orbit, it will have to make the rest of the journey on its own at a rather leisurely pace which will take a few months.

The Falcon 9 launch can be viewed live here... Liftoff is scheduled for 8:45pm ET https://youtu.be/XS0E35aYJcU

[JBT]

[clpetersen]

+1
Quite interesting. Not for manned spacecraft, but low budget.
Did they discuss why it will take two months instead of 4 days (Apollo) to get there?

[krustycat]

Mazal Tov!

Beresheet (Genesis)

[PHC1]

Originally Posted by clpetersen

+1
Quite interesting. Not for manned spacecraft, but low budget.
Did they discuss why it will take two months instead of 4 days (Apollo) to get there?

It’s a very small lunar rover, a bit bigger than the size of a washing machine. It will be the smallest of them all on the moon if it gets there.

From another article:

“One consequence of space travel on a budget is that Beresheet has few of the redundancies and backup systems found on spacecraft built by the likes of NASA. So if a key system fails, it's likely to torpedo the whole mission. A SpaceIL spokesperson told me the mission team is hopeful and confident but that there are no guarantees of success.

Such is the case with most space missions, but in the case of Beresheet, the journey is just as important as the destination. From the beginning, a stated goal for SpaceIL has been "to inspire the next generation in Israel and around the world to choose to study science, technology, engineering and mathematics."

In other words, this buildup to launch and then to landing are just as important as the mission succeeding, because the real goal is not to put a hunk of metal on the moon, but to attract more eyes and imagination to space in general.”

[PHC1]

Israel's first moon lander came up just short in its historic touchdown bid this afternoon (April 11).

The robotic Beresheet spacecraft, built by SpaceIL and Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), aimed to become the first Israeli craft, and the first privately funded mission, ever to land softly on the moon. But the little robot couldn't quite make it, crashing into the gray dirt around 3:25 p.m. EDT (1925 GMT). Mission control lost communications with the spacecraft when it was about 489 feet (149 meters) above the moon's surface.

"We had a failure in the spacecraft; we unfortunately have not managed to land successfully," Opher Doron, the general manager of IAI, said during a live broadcast from mission control. "It's a tremendous achievement up 'til now."

"If at first you don't succeed, you try again," said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who watched Beresheet's landing attempt from SpaceIL's control center in Yehud, Israel.

So the list of moon-landing nations remains at three, all of them superpowers — the Soviet Union, the United States and China.

[krustycat]

Next time, like the old phrase that gave us hope for a few thousand years and became reality, this or better will became reality as well.

Also very important to understand that it was mostly a private project financed by big donors that already pledged to do again.

As we have to invest most of the resources in other projects to protect the homeland and water resources, etc.

Next time.

B”H

[djwhog]

I will look for this in my scope.

When about is it suppose to get to the landing stage?

[PHC1]

Originally Posted by djwhog

I will look for this in my scope.

When about is it suppose to get to the landing stage?

It already landed, unfortunately it crash landed with no further communication possible. Doubtful it will be visible from any hobbyist grade telescope.

[radio times]

I landed on my bed only five hours after leaving my work launch station. Top that superpowers. And I managed a separate orbit around planet supermarket on the way. I also crash landed however.