{"id":18135,"date":"2019-02-21T20:14:10","date_gmt":"2019-02-21T12:14:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/big-step-for-israel-spacex-launches-lunar-lander-along-with-high-flying-satellites\/"},"modified":"2019-02-21T20:14:10","modified_gmt":"2019-02-21T12:14:10","slug":"big-step-for-israel-spacex-launches-lunar-lander-along-with-high-flying-satellites","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/big-step-for-israel-spacex-launches-lunar-lander-along-with-high-flying-satellites\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Big step for Israel\u2019: SpaceX launches lunar lander along with high-flying satellites"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_481785\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-481785\" style=\"width: 630px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full-width wp-image-481785\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/180221-spacex-630x460.jpg\" alt=\"SpaceX launch\" width=\"630\" height=\"460\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/180221-spacex-630x460.jpg 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/180221-spacex-768x561.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/180221-spacex-1260x920.jpg 1260w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/180221-spacex.jpg 1315w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-481785\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">SpaceX\u2019s Falcon 9 rocket launches Indonesia\u2019s Nusantara Satu telecommunications satellite as well as the Israeli Beresheet lunar lander and an Air Force research satellite from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. (SpaceX via YouTube)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket sent the Israeli-made Beresheet lunar lander on the first leg of its journey to the moon tonight, as a ride-along payload accompanying Indonesia\u2019s Nusantara Satu telecommunications satellite and a U.S. Air Force experimental satellite.<\/p>\n<p>The mission marks a milestone for SpaceIL, which funded and built Beresheet (Hebrew for \u201cIn the Beginning\u201d), and also for Seattle-based Spaceflight, which handled the pre-launch logistics for SpaceIL.<\/p>\n<p>If the lander successfully touches down on the lunar surface after its circuitous two-month trip, that will make Israel-based SpaceIL the first privately funded venture to put a payload on the moon. It will also make Israel the fourth nation with a spacecraft on the lunar surface&nbsp;\u2014 after Russia, the United States and China.<\/p>\n<p>Tonight\u2019s launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida also represents Spaceflight\u2019s first effort to get payloads to geosynchronous transfer orbit and beyond. The Seattle launch services company has negotiated the launch of more than 200 satellites, but previous missions had gone no higher than low Earth orbit.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is an important mission for Spaceflight as we expand and evolve our customer offerings,\u201d Spaceflight CEO Curt Blake said in a pre-launch news release. \u201cThe launches we pursue continue to get more sophisticated and demonstrate that our expertise goes beyond identifying and scheduling launches.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Falcon 9 launches Nusantara Satu mission and Falcon 9 first stage landing\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/vUva9-ZnPdI?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\" data-ratio=\"0.5625\" data-width=\"800\" data-height=\"450\" style=\"display: block; margin: 0px; width: 800px; height: 450px;\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The launch went off without a hitch at 8:45 p.m. ET (5:45 p.m. PT)&nbsp;from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. Minutes after liftoff, the Falcon 9\u2019s second stage and its payloads separated from the first-stage booster as planned and proceeded toward geosynchronous transfer orbit, or GTO.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, the first stage maneuvered itself to a landing on an oceangoing drone ship known as \u201cOf Course I Still Love You,\u201d positioned hundreds of miles off the Florida coast. SpaceX said the conditions ranked among the roughest ever encountered during a landing attempt. \u201cHighest re-entry heating to date,\u201d SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said in a tweet.<\/p>\n<p>This marked the third landing for the same booster, which was previously used last year to launch a set of Iridium NEXT satellites and Argentina\u2019s SAOCOM 1A satellite.<\/p>\n<p>Hundreds of SpaceX employees followed the webcast from the company\u2019s headquarters in Hawthorne, Calif., cheering each success along the way.<\/p>\n<p>In Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was part of a different crowd watching the webcast at Israel Aerospace Industries.&nbsp;The Times of Israel quoted Netanyahu as saying&nbsp;SpaceIL\u2019s lunar initiative is \u201ca big step for Israel, and a big step for Israel\u2019s technology.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>SpaceIL\u2019s 1,322-pound Beresheet spacecraft was the first to be dropped off in high orbit, at an altitude of 37,000 miles. Over the weeks ahead, the dishwasher-sized lander will fire its own rocket engine to extend its orbit and enter the moon\u2019s gravitational sphere of influence.<\/p>\n<p>In April, Beresheet will touch down in a relatively flat area of the lunar surface, in Mare Serenitatis, to conduct its science mission. It\u2019s&nbsp;carrying a&nbsp;high-resolution video camera system, a&nbsp;magnetometer to map the moon\u2019s magnetic field&nbsp;and a CD-sized \u201ctime capsule\u201d that contains digitized files of children\u2019s drawings, photographs and information about Israeli culture.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"SpaceIL - Beresheet's Journey to the Moon\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/_R4zk448oPs?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\" data-ratio=\"0.5625\" data-width=\"800\" data-height=\"450\" style=\"display: block; margin: 0px; width: 800px; height: 450px;\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>SpaceIL is a nonprofit organization that was set up to pursue the&nbsp;now-expired Google Lunar X Prize. It\u2019s working on the Beresheet mission in collaboration with state-owned Israel Aerospace Industries, but the nearly $100 million in funding for the mission has come from Israeli billionaire Morris Kahn, Las Vegas billionaire Sheldon Adelson and other philanthropists.<\/p>\n<p>The other two payloads will settle into stable geosynchronous Earth orbit, or GEO, 22,000 miles above our planet.<\/p>\n<p>Nusantara Satu, also known as PSN-6, was built by Maxar Technologies\u2019 SSL subsidiary for&nbsp;Pasifik Satelit Nusantara, a leading Asian provider of satellite-based telecommunication services. Indonesia\u2019s first high-throughput satellite is expected to boost voice, data and video links throughout the Indonesian archipelago and PSN\u2019s Asia-Pacific service area.<\/p>\n<p>The third payload is the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory\u2019s S5 experimental satellite. Built by&nbsp;Blue Canyon Technologies, S5 will carry out a one-year mission aimed at demonstrating small-satellite capabilities in GEO for the U.S. military.<\/p>\n<h4>More about Israel\u2019s moon mission from the Planetary Society<\/h4>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>SpaceX\u2019s Falcon 9 rocket launches Indonesia\u2019s Nusantara Satu telecommunications satellite as well as the Israeli Beresheet lunar lander and an Air Force research satellite from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. (SpaceX via YouTube) A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket sent the Israeli-made Beresheet lunar lander on the first leg of its journey to the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[437,291,479,4434,2670,2266,1672,625,2700,316],"class_list":["post-18135","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-air-force","tag-commercial-space","tag-falcon-9","tag-falcon-launch","tag-google-lunar-x-prize","tag-indonesia","tag-israel","tag-moon","tag-spaceil","tag-spacex"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18135"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18135"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18135\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}