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SpaceX launches Israel's Beresheet lunar rover to Moon | Global News | Streamed live on Feb 21, 2019

A nonprofit Israeli consortium said Monday that it hopes to make history this week by launching the first private aircraft to land on the moon. SpaceIL and state-owned Israel Aerospace Industries told a news conference that the landing craft — dubbed “Beresheet,” or Genesis — will take off from Florida, propelled by a SpaceX Falcon rocket on its weekslong voyage to the moon. The launch is scheduled late Thursday in the United States, early Friday in Israel. It had been originally slated for last December. […] The small craft, roughly the size of a washing machine, is equipped with instruments...

SpaceIL's Beresheet — Hebrew for "In the Beginning" — will become the first privately funded mission to launch from Earth and land on the moon, and the first spacecraft to propel itself over the lunar surface after landing by "hopping" on its rocket engine to a second landing spot. The mission marks yet another milestone, not only in the history and technical arc of space exploration, but also in how humankind goes about space exploration. SpaceIL was founded in 2011 to compete in the Google Lunar XPrize, a program that planned to award US$30 million to the first privately funded...

The unmanned spacecraft, shaped like a pod and weighing some 585 kilogrammes (1,300 pounds) at launch, will land on the moon on February 13, 2019 if all goes according to plan, organisers SpaceIL told a news conference in Yehud, central Israel. The vessel will be launched via a rocket from American entrepreneur Elon Musk's SpaceX firm and its mission will include research on the moon's magnetic field. Its first task, however, will be to plant an Israeli flag on the moon, organisers said. The project began as part of the Google Lunar XPrize, which in 2010 offered $30 million (25...

The nonprofit SpaceIL and the government-owned corporation Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), which manufactured the spacecraft, announced in a statement Monday (Dec. 17) that the lunar spacecraft, dubbed Beresheet will carry a digital time capsule with Israeli national memorabilia. SpaceIL’s mission to the moon began as part of the Google Lunar X Prize competition. SpaceIL was the only Israeli team that participated in the competition, which originally offered a first prize of $30 million to the privately-funded team that could put a robotic spacecraft on the moon, move the craft 1,640 feet (500 meters) and have it beam high-definition photos and...

Three countries have landed missions on the moon: the US, Russia and China. Israel hopes to be the fourth when it launches a spacecraft this December with an assist from a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. The unmanned mission is a joint effort between private company Israel Aerospace Industries and nonprofit organization SpaceIL. SpaceIL participated in the Google Lunar XPrize competition, which wrapped up earlier this year with no ultimate winner. The people at SpaceIL aren't letting that stop them from completing the lunar journey. On Tuesday, the team announced its goal of a Feb. 13, 2019, moon landing, but it has yet to...