Despite malfunctions, Israeli lunar lander completes maneuver

The first Israeli spacecraft made a successful maneuver Thursday afternoon, despite malfunctions and complications due to a defective navigation system.

According to a statement by SpaceIL, the Israeli private company that designed and built Beresheet, the lunar satellite Lander performed the maneuver successfully at 3:11 pm. Israel time, despite the persistent problems related to the spacecraft star tracking system of the spacecraft.

"Today at 15:11 (Israel time), a Beresheet probe maneuver was successfully completed by the ground crew of SpaceIL and Israel Aerospace Industries. The Beresheet spacecraft is en route to an elliptical orbit, whose maximum distance is 270,000 kilometers from the Earth. "

"The maneuver was complicated because of the need to deal with the constraints of star trackers, but was successfully completed as planned. During the maneuver, the main Beresheet engine was activated for 152 seconds. "

"The next maneuver should take place in about two weeks."

Launched from Cape Canaveral on 21 February, this washing machine-sized spacecraft is the first Israeli lunar lander. The unmanned vehicle is expected to land on the moon in April.

Shortly after the launch, however, the ground crew encountered technical problems with Beresheet, including a faulty star follower and an anomaly in the computer system that caused the machine to reset, missing a scheduled maneuver .

Since then, however, the SpaceIL and IAI teams have stated that the spacecraft appears to be able to perform the necessary maneuvers, despite persistent problems with the star tracking system.