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An Israeli spacecraft for the country's first lunar mission began to orbit the moon on Thursday, completing a key maneuver in anticipation of a planned landing next week, mission chiefs said.
The movement, known as the "lunar capture," moved the unmanned Beresheet vessel into an elliptical orbit that brought it within 500 kilometers of the Moon.
"This maneuver allowed to capture the space probe under the effect of gravity of the Moon and put it into orbit around the moon – and with the moon around the Earth," said the project's main partner in a statement.
The spacecraft aims to mark history twice – as the first landing of the moon in the private sector and the first of the Jewish state.
SpaceIL and Israel's Israel Aerospace Industries launched Feb. 22 Beresheet – Hebrew for Genesis – Cape Canaveral, Florida.
The 585-kilogram aircraft took off at the top of a Falcon 9 rocket from Elon Musk, a US-based private SpaceX company.
The trip is expected to last seven weeks, with the Beresheet scheduled to land on the moon on April 11.
Until now, only Russia, the United States and China have traveled the 384,000 kilometers traveled and landed on the moon.
Until now, only Russia, the United States and China have traveled the 384,000 kilometers traveled and landed on the moon. / VCG Photo
Until now, only Russia, the United States and China have traveled the 384,000 kilometers traveled and landed on the moon. / VCG Photo
"The lunar capture is a historic event in itself, but it also joins Israel in a seven-nation club that has entered the moon's orbit," said SpaceIL President Morris Kahn.
"In a week, we will write more history by landing on the moon and joining three superpowers who have already done so."
The Israeli mission comes as the global interest in the moon resumes more and more, fifty years after the first appearance of American astronauts on its surface.
On January 3, the Chinese Chang & # 39; e-4 made the first soft landing on the other side of the moon, after a survey sent by the country made a lunar landing elsewhere in 2013 .
For Israel, the landing is the main mission, but the spacecraft is also equipped with a scientific instrument to measure the lunar magnetic field, which will help understand the formation of the Moon.
It also contains a "time capsule" containing digital files containing a Bible, children's drawings, Israeli songs, memories of a Holocaust survivor and the Israeli blue and white flag.
(Cover: Israel's Beresheet spacecraft is scheduled to land on the moon on April 11.)
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