https://www.cbsnews.com/news/israeli-lunar-lander-slips-into-orbit-around-the-moon/
A small Israeli spacecraft executed a critical rocket firing
Thursday, easing out of a highly elliptical Earth orbit and into one
around the moon. It sets the stage for an automated landing attempt
April 11.
The spacecraft is the first privately funded, non-superpower lunar lander.
"The
lunar capture is an historic event in and of itself, but it also joins
Israel in a seven-nation club that has entered the moon's orbit," said
Morris Kahn, chairman of SpaceIL, the non-profit that brought the
Beresheet moon landing mission to fruition. "A week from today we'll
make more history by landing on the moon, joining three super powers who
have done so. Today I am proud to be an Israeli."
Launched February 21 as a secondary payload aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9
rocket, the robotic Beresheet's main engine fired seven times over the
past few weeks to raise the high point of its orbit to an altitude just
past the moon's orbit 240,000 miles away.
For Thursday's maneuver, a six-minute burn began at 10:18 a.m. ET,
reducing Beresheet's velocity relative to the moon by about 620 miles
per hour, just enough to allow lunar gravity to capture the spacecraft.
The burn was designed to put the craft into an orbit with a low point of
about 310 miles and a high point around 6,213 miles.
The
firing was critical because without it, Beresheet would have sailed past
the moon into a useless orbit around the sun, bringing the mission to a
disappointing end.
But the rocket firing went smoothly, setting
the stage for landing on a broad plain known as Mare Serenitatis on
April 11. If successful, Israel will join the United States, Russia and
China as only the fourth nation to land an operational spacecraft on the
moon.
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