First Private Israel Lunar Mission to Be Launched This Week

Technicians stand next to the SpaceIL lunar module, an unmanned spacecraft, is on display in a special "clean room" where the spacecraft is being developed, during a press tour of their facility near Tel Aviv, Israel. SpaceIL and state-owned Israel Aerospace Industries told a news conference that the landing craft will take off from Florida, to its weekslong voyage to the moon. AP Photo/Ariel Schalit, File

RAMAT GAN, Israel—A nonprofit Israeli consortium said on Feb. 18, that it hopes to make history this week by launching the first private aircraft to land on the moon.

SpaceIL and state-owned Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) told a news conference that the landing craft—dubbed “Beresheet,” or Genesis—will take off from Florida, propelled by a SpaceX Falcon rocket on its weekslong voyage to the moon.

The launch is scheduled late Thursday in the United States, early Friday in Israel. It had been originally slated for last December.

Journalists prepare to attend a press conference by Israeli Aerospace Industries space division to announce the launch of a spacecraft to the moon at the end of 2018 in Yehud, Eastern Tel Aviv, on July 10, 2018. Thomas Coex/AFP

SpaceIL CEO Ido Anteby and Opher Doron, general manager of the IAI’s space division, said the spacecraft will slingshot around the Earth at least six times in order to reach the moon and land on its surface on April 11.

If the SpaceIL mission is successful, Israel will become the fourth country to land a spacecraft on the moon, after the Soviet Union, the United States, and China.

SpaceIL has attempted to drum up public excitement for the lunar mission in Israel in recent months, visiting classrooms around the country and sponsoring television advertisements that put Israel on par with global powers.

A spacecraft weighing some 1,300 pounds is seen during a presentation by Israeli nonprofit SpaceIL and Israeli state-owned Aerospace Industries, in Yehud, east of Tel Aviv. on December 17, 2018, Jack Guez/AFP/Getty Images

The small craft, roughly the size of a washing machine, is equipped with instruments to measure the moon’s magnetic field, as well as a copy of the Bible microscopically etched on a small metal disc.

Israel’s space program chief Avi Blasberger said he hopes SpaceIL will create a “Beresheet effect” in Israel, akin to the Apollo effect, to promote science among a new generation.

SpaceIL was founded in 2011 and originally competed for Google’s Lunar Xprize, which challenged private companies to try to land a robotic spacecraft on the moon.

But the $20 million competition was scrapped by the tech giant last year when it became clear none of the five companies would meet a preset deadline.

Scientists stand next to a spacecraft (L) during a presentation by Israeli nonprofit SpaceIL and Israeli state-owned Aerospace Industries, in Yehud, east of Tel Aviv. on Dec. 17, 2018 Jack Guez/ AFP

The SpaceIL project has ballooned in cost over the years to around $100 million, financed largely by South African-Israeli billionaire Morris Kahn and other donors from around the world.

Kahn said he believes that “every Jew, not only every Israeli, will remember where he was when Israel landed on the moon.”