1st Israeli Lunar Lander Lifts Off on Top of Falcon 9 Rocket From Cape Canaveral

[Deleted]

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The Falcon 9 launch vehicle successfully blazed off from the US Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, carrying Israel's first lunar mission Beresheet, Indonesian communications satellite Nusantara Satu and the US Air Force Research Laboratory S5 spacecraft, the live broadcast on SpaceX website showed.

The rocket was launched at 08:45 p.m. on Friday (01:45 GMT on Saturday). Falcon 9 launch vehicle successfully delivered all vehicles to the orbit, SpaceX reported later.

After deployment SpaceIL Beresheet started its two-months voyage to the Moon. If successful, the mission will make Israel the world’s fourth country to land on the moon, after Russia, the US and China.

The lander is the smallest such craft by weight, at 600 kilograms, and measures just 1.5 metres by 2 metres.

The mission will be the third for Falcon 9's reusable first stage, which was already used in July and October.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1098772221693067265

SpaceX said it planned to land the first stage on a droneship, which will be located in the Atlantic Ocean, following the separation.

https://sputniknews.com/science/201902221072643879-israel-lunar-lander/

 

[jamahir]

I should point out that this mission is Israel's attempt in the Google Lunar X Prize which has three simple objectives : Put a lander on the Moon's surface, out should come a rover which has to travel at least 500 meters while recording HD pics and vids, sending them back to Earth.

Israel's team, SpaceIL, managed to buy "space" on a Falcon 9 rocket, which one of the other finalists, India's TeamIndus, sadly could not buy on an Indian rocket.

@Hamartia Antidote @RealNapster @KapitaanAli

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

I should point out that this mission is Israel's attempt in the Google Lunar X Prize which has three simple objectives : Put a lander on the Moon's surface, out should come a rover which has to travel at least 500 meters while recording HD pics and vids, sending them back to Earth.

Israel's team, SpaceIL, managed to buy "space" on a Falcon 9 rocket, which one of the other finalists, India's TeamIndus, sadly could not buy on an Indian rocket.

@Hamartia Antidote @RealNapster @KapitaanAli

I don’t think there is a rover

 

[jamahir]

I don’t think there is a rover

Now that you mentioned it, I did a google and found this image :

You are right. There is no space in it for a rover, although the other side of the lander is not visible.