Israeli lunar spacecraft successfully completes first maneuver

Israel’s first lunar-bound spacecraft successfully completes its first maneuver after its first orbit around the earth, according to the team behind the privately funded Beresheet project.

According to a joint statement from IAI and SpaceIL, the 30-second maneuver, made 69,400 kilometers from earth, enabled the spacecraft to edge closer to the moon, where it will eventually be captured in lunar orbit.

The maneuver “will increase the spacecraft’s closest point of approach to Earth to a distance of 600 kilometers,” the statement sayd.

“This is the first time Beresheet’s main engine was activated – the maneuver was completed successfully!” it adds.

The next maneuver is scheduled for tomorrow night.

Beresheet, which means “Genesis” in Hebrew, lifted from Cape Canaveral in Florida early Friday morning atop a Falcon 9 rocket from the private US-based SpaceX company of entrepreneur Elon Musk.

The Israeli craft was placed in Earth orbit, from where it will use its own engine to undertake a seven-week trip to reach the Moon and touch down on April 11 in a large plain.

If successful, Beresheet will make history twice: as the first private-sector landing on the Moon, and the first from the Jewish state.