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We Have a Launch and Landing Dates! – Press Release (July 10, 2018) -- First Israeli lunar spacecraft set to land on moon Feb. 13, 2019, making Israel fourth country to do so YEHUD, Israel, July 10 – At a historic press conference today at Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI)’s MBT Space facility in Yehud, Israel, nonprofit SpaceIL and IAI announced a lunar mission to launch from Cape Canaveral, Fla., this December, and land on the moon on Feb. 13, 2019. A final launch date will be announced closer to the event. The lunar landing will culminate eight years of intensive collaboration between SpaceIL and IAI, and will make Israel the fourth country after the U.S., China and Russia to reach the moon. The spacecraft will be launched as a secondary payload on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida, and its journey to the moon will last about two months, ending on its expected landing date. The Israeli lunar spacecraft will be the smallest to land on the moon, weighing only 1,322 pounds, or 600 kilograms. Approximately $88 million (NIS 320 million) has been invested in the spacecraft’s development and construction, mostly from private donors, headed by SpaceIL President Mr. Morris Kahn, who donated about $27 million, or NIS 100 million.