{"id":18369,"date":"2018-09-11T19:19:43","date_gmt":"2018-09-11T11:19:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/israeli-moon-lander-to-ride-spacex-rocket-in-spaceflights-first-move-beyond-low-earth-orbit\/"},"modified":"2018-09-11T19:19:43","modified_gmt":"2018-09-11T11:19:43","slug":"israeli-moon-lander-to-ride-spacex-rocket-in-spaceflights-first-move-beyond-low-earth-orbit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/israeli-moon-lander-to-ride-spacex-rocket-in-spaceflights-first-move-beyond-low-earth-orbit\/","title":{"rendered":"Israeli moon lander to ride SpaceX rocket in Spaceflight\u2019s first move beyond low Earth orbit"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_204030\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-204030\" style=\"width: 620px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-204030 size-full-width\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/SpaceIL-Lunar-Lander-620x465.jpg\" alt=\"SpaceIL lunar lander\" width=\"620\" height=\"465\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/SpaceIL-Lunar-Lander-620x465.jpg 620w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/SpaceIL-Lunar-Lander.jpg 1022w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 620px) 100vw, 620px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-204030\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">An artist\u2019s conception shows SpaceIL\u2019s Sparrow lunar lander on the moon\u2019s surface. (SpaceIL Illustration)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>SpaceIL\u2019s lunar lander is go for launch as a secondary payload on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket that\u2019s due to send a telecommunications satellite into geosynchronous orbit, Seattle-based Spaceflight announced today.<\/p>\n<p>The launch, expected early next year, would represent the first Spaceflight rideshare mission to go beyond low Earth orbit. And Israel-based SpaceIL\u2019s mission would represent the first non-governmental landing on the moon.<\/p>\n<p>Spaceflight timed its announcement to coincide with Euroconsult\u2019s World Satellite Business Week conference in Paris. It said rideshare opportunities to geosynchronous transfer orbit, or GTO, would be made available every 12 to 18 months, or as customer demand requires.<\/p>\n<p>Although Spaceflight didn\u2019t identify the primary payload for Spaceflight\u2019s first GTO mission, it\u2019s thought to be the PSN-6 telecommunications satellite, which was built for Indonesia\u2019s PT Pasifik Satelit Nusantara by SSL, a Maxar Technologies subsidiary. This would be the first combined launch for Spaceflight and SSL.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re focused on getting our customers\u2019 spacecraft into orbit in the most expeditious, cost-effective manner possible,\u201d Spaceflight President Curt Blake said in a news release. \u201cThe rideshare model is beneficial to everyone; the primary spacecraft as well as all the secondaries pay less than if they contracted to launch individually. In addition, working with a reliable partner like SSL to fulfill our first GTO mission increases our ability to service this growing destination. We\u2019re looking forward to making GTO a routine and affordable destination for our clients.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The mission plan calls for several of Spaceflight\u2019s rideshare payloads to be deployed from geosynchronous transfer orbit. SSL\u2019s host spacecraft would then continue onward to geosynchronous orbit, where the remaining rideshare satellites would be separated.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"SpaceIL Presents: The Mission\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/qmVBF8f3ZD4?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>Spaceflight didn\u2019t identify any of the payloads other than SpaceIL\u2019s, and didn\u2019t disclose the prices that were paid. Spaceflight, which provides satellite rideshare and mission management services in league with a wide range of launch providers, is a subsidiary of Seattle\u2019s Spaceflight Industries.<\/p>\n<p>David Bernstein, senior vice president of program management at SSL, hailed Spaceflight\u2019s \u201cinnovative approach to aggregating launches and bringing a more cost-effective launch model to the industry as a result.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWorking as a team with Spaceflight and SpaceX, we are enabling a unique mission that ultimately accomplishes a translunar injection, prior to dropping off other payloads on our way to geostationary orbit for the primary communications satellite,\u201d Bernstein said.<\/p>\n<p>SpaceIL was one of the competitors in the $30 million Google Lunar X Prize, which was terminated early this year when organizers determined that none of the teams could get to the moon before the March deadline.<\/p>\n<p>During a July news conference in Israel, SpaceIL\u2019s team leaders said they expected to have their spacecraft launched by the end of this year, kicking off an energy-efficient, two-month trip to the moon. At the time, their schedule called for the 600-kilogram (1,300-pound) lander to touch down on the lunar surface on Feb. 13, 2019, but that schedule may have to be revised to reflect a later time frame for the launch.<\/p>\n<p>After landing, the spacecraft would send back photos and videos as well as data about the moon\u2019s magnetic field.<\/p>\n<p>SpaceIL\u2019s organizers say about $88 million has been invested in the effort, mostly from private donors but also from organizations including the Israel Space Agency; Israeli\u2019s Ministry of Science, Technology and Space; and the Weizmann Institute of Science. SpaceIL President Morris Kahn, an Israeli billionaire investor, reportedly has donated $27 million.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Update for 5:12 p.m. PT Sept. 11:<\/strong> Spaceflight says the launch is scheduled for early 2019.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An artist\u2019s conception shows SpaceIL\u2019s Sparrow lunar lander on the moon\u2019s surface. (SpaceIL Illustration) SpaceIL\u2019s lunar lander is go for launch as a secondary payload on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket that\u2019s due to send a telecommunications satellite into geosynchronous orbit, Seattle-based Spaceflight announced today. The launch, expected early next year, would represent the first [&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":[625,1208,2340,2700,316,3498],"class_list":["post-18369","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-moon","tag-rideshare","tag-spaceflight","tag-spaceil","tag-spacex","tag-ssl"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18369"}],"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=18369"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18369\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}