Live UpdateFrom the Liveblog of Wednesday, April 10, 2019

What election? Beresheet gears up for historic moon landing

10 April 2019, 10:09 pm Edit

The Beresheet spacecraft has completed its final maneuver ahead of a planned moon landing on Thursday night.

The privately-funded spacecraft is now in its smallest elliptical orbit around the moon, completing a full rotation it in just two hours. At its closest point, the spacecraft is 15 to 17 kilometer above the moon’s surface.

Beresheet photographs the moon on April 10, 2019 from a height of 2,500 kilometers. (Courtesy)

If all goes according to plan, the spacecraft will touch down on the moon’s surface on April 11 between 10 to 11 p.m., making Israel the fourth country to put a spacecraft on the moon.

— Melanie Lidman