Israel’s First Lunar Mission Successfully Orbits the Moon
The mission is known as the “lunar capture”, which has shifted the unmanned Beresheet craft into an elliptical orbit, which brought it within 500 kilometres (310 miles) of the Moon. Beresheet in Hebrew means Genesis
Israel is successful in its first lunar mission, as the Israeli spacecraft has started orbiting the moon. The success of the spacecraft also made history with two achievements, as the first private sector Moon landing and the first from the Jewish state. This is a big achievement for the war-torn country.
The mission is known as the “lunar capture”, which has shifted the unmanned Beresheet craft into an elliptical orbit, which brought it within 500 kilometres (310 miles) of the Moon. Beresheet in Hebrew means Genesis.
In a statement, Israel project lead partners declared, “This manoeuvre enabled the spacecraft to be captured by the Moon's gravity and begin orbiting the Moon - and with the Moon, orbiting the Earth”.
NGO SpaceIL and state-owned Israel Aerospace Industries launched the Beresheet from Cape Canaveral in Florida on 22nd February. The spacecraft undertook the travel after it took off from a Falcon 9 rocket from Elon Musk’s private SpaceX Company.
The space trip is scheduled for the last seven weeks and the Beresheet is due to touch and land on the Moon on April 11. So far, only Russia, the United States and China have achieved this feat of undertaking 384,000-kilometre journey individually and landed on the Moon.
SpaceIL chairman Morris Kahn said, “The lunar capture is an historic event in and of itself - but it also joins Israel in a seven-nation club that has entered the Moon's orbit. A week from today we'll make more history by landing on the Moon, joining three super powers who have done so”.
The Israeli mission came at a time when there is a renewed global interest in the Moon. 50 years after American astronauts first walked on the surface of the moon.
On January, China’s lunar mission Chang’e 4 has made the first-ever soft landing on the far side of the Moon after a probe sent by Beijing made a lunar landing elsewhere in 2013.
In the first space mission, the landing itself was the main mission for Israel, but as the spacecraft also carries a scientific instrument to measure the lunar magnetic field, it will work on it after landing on the moon’s surface and this will also help the world in the understanding of the Moon’s formation.
The Israeli mission also carries a ‘time capsule’, which is loaded with some digital files including a small Bible, drawings of children, Israeli songs, memories of a Holocaust survivor and the blue-and-white flag of Israel.