Israel set to join elite lunar club with first mission to moon

By Joey Roulette

 

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying Israel's first spacecraft designed to land on the moon is prepared for launch on the first privately-funded lunar mission at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Florida, U.S., February 21, 2019. REUTERS/Joe Skipper

 

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) - Israel's first spacecraft built to land on the moon was set for launch on Thursday from Florida on a mission that, if successful, would make the Jewish state only the fourth nation to achieve a controlled touchdown on the lunar surface.

 

The unmanned robotic lander dubbed Beresheet - Hebrew for the biblical phrase "in the beginning" - was due for liftoff at 8:45 p.m. EST (0145 GMT Friday) atop a Falcon 9 rocket launched by California-based entrepreneur Elon Musk's SpaceX company from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

 

If all goes according to plan, Beresheet, about the size of a dishwasher, will arrive on the near-side of the moon in mid-April following a two-month journey through 4 million miles (6.5 million km) of space. A flight path directly from the Earth to the moon would cover roughly 240,000 miles (386,242 km).

 

Once launched, the spacecraft will enter a gradually widening Earth orbit that will eventually bring the probe within the moon's gravitational pull, setting the stage for a series of additional manoeuvres leading to an automated touchdown.

 

Beresheet was one of three payloads to be carried aloft by the SpaceX rocket. The two others are a telecommunications satellite for Indonesia and an experimental satellite for the U.S. Air Force.

 

So far, only three other nations have carried out controlled "soft" landings on the moon - the United States, the former Soviet Union and China. Spacecraft from several countries, including India's Moon Impact Probe, Japan's SELENE orbiter and a European Space Agency orbital probe called SMART 1, have intentionally crashed on the lunar surface.

 

The U.S. Apollo program tallied six manned missions to the moon - the only ones yet achieved - between 1969 and 1972, with about a dozen more robotic landings combined by the United States and Soviets. China made history in January with its Chang'e 4, the first to touch down on the dark side of the moon.

 

Beresheet would mark the first non-government lunar landing. The 1,290-pound (585 kg) spacecraft was built by Israeli nonprofit space venture SpaceIL and state-owned defence contractor Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) with $100 million furnished almost entirely by private donors.

 

SpaceIL officials have said they hope Beresheet will help inspire Israel's defence-focussed space program to pursue more science-oriented missions.

 

Beresheet is designed to spend just two to three days using on-board instruments to photograph its landing site and measure the moon's magnetic field. Data will be relayed via the U.S. space agency NASA's Deep Space Network to SpaceIL's Israel-based ground station Yehud.

 

A series of future moon landings has already been jointly planned by IAI and German's OHB System on behalf of the European Space Agency.

 

(Reporting by Joey Roulette in Cape Canaveral; Editing by Steve Gorman, Bill Berkrot and Cynthia Osterman)

 

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2019-02-22

WHy does a tiny middle Eastern state like Israel need a moon mission?

Who from Isreal is going to the moon? What unmanned,  this is hardly a news story...

More junk on the moons surface, but I guess if some people get up there to live, they can start gathering up some of this stuff to use for their colony.

Geezer

54 minutes ago, mlmcleod said:

WHy does a tiny middle Eastern state like Israel need a moon mission?

They have to spend the money that American taxpayers give them every year? 

Good for them. If it is like most of their other scientific endeavors, it will wind up being either used to defend us here in the USA, or benefitting some other portion of humanity.

 

 

They can easily afford this with the tens of billions in free aid they receive from self-hating governments in the USA, Russia, and the UK.

Troll posts and the replies have been removed. 

WHy does a tiny middle Eastern state like Israel need a moon mission?

I would guess that it's related to their existential need to be among the most advanced nations as far as technology. Yes. Defense. Good on Israel.

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Who from Isreal is going to the moon? What unmanned,  this is hardly a news story...
More junk on the moons surface, but I guess if some people get up there to live, they can start gathering up some of this stuff to use for their colony.
Geezer

It is definitely news. Good news.

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8 minutes ago, Jingthing said:

It is definitely news. Good news.

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Why  good news?

Why  good news?

It's a sign that Israel is staying up to date with the world's most advanced technology which bodes well for Israel continuing to exist in the future even with so many enemies near and far. Israel can't afford not to be one of the global leaders in technology.

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2 minutes ago, Jingthing said:

It's a sign that Israel is staying up to date with the world's most advanced technology which bodes well for Israel continuing to exist in the future even with so many enemies near and far. Israel can't afford not to be one of the global leaders in technology.

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Ok. Reasonable thinking but for the fact that it can only do so as a puppet state of the USA. And more than likely at the  behest of the USA .

 

2 minutes ago, Dumbastheycome said:

Ok. Reasonable thinking but for the fact that it can only do so as a puppet state of the USA. And more than likely at the  behest of the USA .

 

Do you really think that the USA controls the Israeli Government and is thus a "puppet state"?

   Some have even suggested that its actually the other way around

Do you really think that the USA controls the Israeli Government and is thus a "puppet state"?
   Some have even suggested that its actually the other way around

Neither is true. They are indeed close allies.

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Good on them. Tech powerhouse well and truely.

Off-topic, inflammatory, troll posts and replies removed.   Continue and face a suspension.  

1 minute ago, Jingthing said:

Foul.
Your rhetoric sounds like it comes out of the protocols of the elders of Zion. That's disposable.

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As  expected.????

Please do not respond to deleted posts. 

9 hours ago, Nyezhov said:

Good for them. If it is like most of their other scientific endeavors, it will wind up being either used to defend us here in the USA, or benefitting some other portion of humanity.

 

 

So your post is about using a moon mission for use in defense or attack. Allah help us,

You have lost the plot. It is supposed to be about scientific enquiry such as Japan has just done (landing a probe on a comet  300,000 km from earth) 

Troll posts and a replies have been removed

If Jeremy Corbyn mysteriously disappears we’ll know where Mossad sent him.

On 2/22/2019 at 6:49 PM, Dumbastheycome said:

Ok. Reasonable thinking but for the fact that it can only do so as a puppet state of the USA. And more than likely at the  behest of the USA .

 

No two countries have cooperated in space more or longer than the United States and Russia. Does that make Russia a puppet of America? Do you know how many EU space projects depend on cooperation with NASA, and visa versa? Are they puppets of each other?

 

From what I know the Israeli moon project is their own weird brain child, they just paid Space X for a boost. Israel has some amazingly high technology.

Edited February 23, 20197 yr by rabas

54 minutes ago, rabas said:

No two countries have cooperated in space more or longer than the United States and Russia. Does that make Russia a puppet of America? Do you know how many EU space projects depend on cooperation with NASA, and visa versa? Are they puppets of each other?

 

From what I know the Israeli moon project is their own weird brain child, they just paid Space X for a boost. Israel has some amazingly high technology.

In previous  times  yes NASA was a high profile entity  due to the  Cold War.

The Cape C. launch site is  now  basically a  place for hire.

The new era of  space exploration/ development is now openly  commercialized.

That is not only because it is no longer a exclusive launch  site.

But at the time when  cooperation in space  exploration had it's  initial public fascination Russia conceded to the mutual advantage of  cooperation in more ways than one.

Given that repeating  apparent historical "missions" to the moon"  in light of the  current commercialized era there would need  be a question as to the  justification  of purpose.

Some  may  perceive  such  comment as  being "off topic" simply  because it  does  not  laud  the achievement as  a singular  factor.

Space X  has  also  been  contracted  to  launch US Air Force  "experimental "  objects. We are expected  to believe the given purpose  of "experiment" as a matter of  course  and  for that given purpose may well be true  but  not  in entirety of purpose.

A thoughtful consideration  of  the  clever  shift  from  accountable Government funding  into the  much more  obscure  " private"  sector  via  contracts does  nothing to  deny the truth about the weaponization  of  " Space".

Humanity  is  the  eventual  puppet of puppeteers and puppet states.

That others  either in defence , incited to retaliation ,initiating conflict, or  supplanting and evidencing a sense of superiority does  nothing other to threaten the security  of an increasingly  naive global population.

So in my  opinion your  question is  valid.

I consider  my response  to it as equally  valid.

 

 

I hope Netenyahoo is the first pilot and that the mission fail.

Scum always rise to the top and he should rise far above us all in space.

12 hours ago, Prissana Pescud said:

I hope Netenyahoo is the first pilot and that the mission fail.

Scum always rise to the top and he should rise far above us all in space.

Netenyahoo?

12 hours ago, Prissana Pescud said:

I hope Netenyahoo is the first pilot and that the mission fail.

Scum always rise to the top and he should rise far above us all in space.

Did you read the bit about this being an "unmanned" space flight or did you read that bit and consider Netnahyahu to be a shape changing Lizard and therefore NOT a man ?

On 2/22/2019 at 3:48 AM, mlmcleod said:

WHy does a tiny middle Eastern state like Israel need a moon mission?

It is part of their satellite and communications technology R&D and allows for Israel to gain experience and knowledge so that it can continue to contribute to space exploration and the International Space Station.  Much of the  undertaking was financed by private investors. It is also an attempt to come up with alternative uses for the defense industry technology. Why shouldn't the country make an effort to help explore the universe? Canada is a small country, yet it came up with the US Space Shuttle arm technology, the CanadArm which resulted in significant  spinoff activity.

30 minutes ago, geriatrickid said:

It is part of their satellite and communications technology R&D and allows for Israel to gain experience and knowledge so that it can continue to contribute to space exploration and the International Space Station.  Much of the  undertaking was financed by private investors. It is also an attempt to come up with alternative uses for the defense industry technology. Why shouldn't the country make an effort to help explore the universe? Canada is a small country, yet it came up with the US Space Shuttle arm technology, the CanadArm which resulted in significant  spinoff activity.

I missed out on where Canada wasted money by sending a spacecraft to the moon?

On 2/22/2019 at 6:48 PM, mlmcleod said:

WHy does a tiny middle Eastern state like Israel need a moon mission?

The Israelis have a great track record with hi-tech development and onsale to many countries. However, as mentioned in the OP to "help inspire Israel's defence-focussed space program to pursue more science-oriented missions". Though one would assume there are off the record Defense focussed projects as well. 

Edited February 24, 20197 yr by simple1

On 2/24/2019 at 12:55 PM, sanemax said:

Did you read the bit about this being an "unmanned" space flight or did you read that bit and consider Netnahyahu to be a shape changing Lizard and therefore NOT a man ?

You got it right. On all accounts