Israel’s first lunar lander begins journey to the moon

An Israeli spacecraft aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket has launched from Cape Canaveral in Florida, beginning what will be a two-month journey to land on the Moon.

If successful, Israel, a state with less than nine million citizens, will join Russia, the US, and China as the only countries to have made a controlled landing on the surface of earth’s nearest neighbor.

Funded almost entirely by donations, the project is also the first privately-backed lunar lander mission.

The 585kg (1,290lb) robotic lander named Beresheet, the Hebrew word for Genesis took off at 8:45 pm on Thursday night local time. It was placed on top a Falcon 9 rocket, one of SpaceX’s private fleets run by billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk.

“We thought it’s about time for a change, and we want to get little Israel all the way to the Moon,” said Yonatan Winetraub, co-founder of SpaceIL, the nonprofit organization behind the effort.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu watched the launch from the control center in Yehud, Israel. And Apollo 11’s Buzz Aldrin congratulated the team on their journey “to my old stomping ground ... the moon”.

Crewed lunar trips have taken around three days, but the probe will take a circuitous route.

Beresheet was jettisoned into Earth orbit about 34 minutes after launch, followed 15 minutes later by the release of the two satellites, according to a SpaceX webcast of the event.

Following an automated touchdown, the four-legged craft will photograph its landing site – a dark spot in a lunar plain called the Sea of Serenity – and measure magnetic fields. It will only be operational for about two days, before shutting down.

Its frame houses a time capsule of digital files the size of coins containing the Bible, children’s drawings, Israel’s national anthem, and blue and white flag, as well as memories of a Holocaust survivor.

Built by SpaceIL in partnership with the state-owned Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), Beresheet cost around £70m, a fraction of the cost of Russian, US, and Chinese government-led missions.

Morris Kahn, a South African-born Israeli billionaire, is the main backer but US Republican party and pro-Israel funder Miriam Adelson and her casino-owning husband, Sheldon, also gave $24m.

SpaceX says the rocket will be reused, after the main-stage booster separated and flew back to earth, landing safely on a drone ship in the Atlantic ocean.