Tests Cleared By Israeli Lunar Lander In Preparation For SpaceX Moon Launch

The managers of the foremost mission of Israel to the moon state their lunar lander has cleared vital tests in preparation for the launch of February on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket—with the assistance of a Seattle space firm. Lander of SpaceIL—named Beresheet—is planned for launch no prior to February 18 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida.

Mission accomplishment would make Israel the 4th country to perform a soft landing on the lunar surface, after the steps of the US, Russia, and China. The Spaceflight Industries’ launch logistics subsidiary, Spaceflight, arranged inclusion of Beresheet as a secondary payload on a project that will drive the PSN-6 telecommunications satellite of Indonesia, also called Nusantara Satu, to the geostationary orbit.

In a tweet, SpaceIL gave a green signal to Spaceflight mentioning the accomplishment of pre-launch checks at the processing facility of SpaceX in Florida. The launch plan calls for the PSN-6, Beresheet spacecraft, and an unrevealed US government satellite to be driven into a geostationary transfer orbit. At an altitude of 37,000 miles (60,000 km), Beresheet would get separated, whereas the other 2 satellites would stay into steady 22,000-mile-high (36,000-km-high) orbits.

The lander is developed to perform a string of looping orbits that will place 5.6 million miles on the odometer of the spacecraft during the 8-weeks period, resulting in its capture by the gravitational field of the moon. The dishwasher-sized spacecraft has 400-pounds weight when unfilled, but it will be carting twice that load in fuel for exercises resulting in a lunar landing in April.

On a similar note, as per recent reports, now the Israeli firm is stated to be collaborating with a German company to provide identical landers for future ESA missions. A teaming agreement has been signed by Israel Aerospace Industries with OHB System to provide the commercial delivery of cargos to the moon for ESA.