NASA and the Israeli Space Agency will send landing craft on SpaceIL by 2019 | Science | New



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The US Space Agency has signed an agreement and will provide a laser retroreflector to facilitate ground tracking and the Deep Space network to facilitate inter-mission communication.

The SpaceIL-like spider-like gear that will land on the moon will mean that Israel is one of three countries to have made a controlled landing on the lunar surface.

The spacecraft will launch in December from Cape Canaveral aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.

Jim Bridenstine, director of NASA, said: "I am delighted to extend the progress of the commercial cooperation that we have achieved in low Earth orbit with the lunar environment with this new agreement with NASA. Israeli Space Agency and SpaceIL.

"Innovative partnerships like this one will be essential to go to the moon and create new opportunities."

Ido Anteby, director of SpaceIL, said in a statement: "We all hope that our spaceship will be only the first part and that there will be more space missions and technological challenges ahead."

Science Minister Ofir Akunis said, "Cooperation between Israel and the United States is growing in all areas, as is the partnership between NASA and the Israeli Space Agency.

"Israel is proud to be part of the new journey on the moon and to advance our technological capabilities around the world."

ISA and SpaceIL will share data with NASA from the SpaceIL lunar magnetometer installed in the aircraft.

The agreement was signed in Germany at the 69th International Astronautical Congress.

The agreement comes three months after NASA President Jim Bridenstine's visit to Israel declared that he would strengthen the agency's relationship with the Jewish state.

The project started seven years ago as part of a Google Technology Contest to place a small probe on the moon.

It was conducted with Israel Areospace

Spacecraft will conduct an experiment at the Weizmann Institute of Science to measure the magnetic field of the moon.

Israel's billionaire philanthropist and SpaceIL president Morris Kahn has donated at least $ 27 million to the project.

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