![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/201921-124013.jpg\")
<\/p>\nA SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched from Cape Canaveral Thursday, carrying a payload of three very different spacecraft: an Indonesian telecommunications satellite, an experimental spacecraft for the US military and the first commercial mission to attempt a landing on the Moon. Falcon lifted off from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at the opening of a 32-minute window at 20:45 Eastern Time (01:45 UTC on Friday).<\/p>\n
The primary payload for Thursday\u2019s launch was Nusantara Satu, a high-throughput communications satellite that will be operated by Indonesia\u2019s PT Pasifik Satelit Nusantara (PSN). However, much attention in the build up to launch has been paid to the Israeli Beresheet spacecraft that is piggy-backing on the Falcon 9 launch.<\/p>\n
Beresheet will attempt to become the first Israeli spacecraft, and the first privately-operated mission, to land on the Moon. The third satellite aboard Thursday\u2019s launch is S5, a space situational awareness demonstrator for the US Air Force Research Laboratory which will be deployed by Nusantara Satu at a later date.<\/p>\n
Previously known as PSN VI or PSN-6, the Nusantara Satu satellite was built by Space Systems Loral around the SSL-1300 platform. Bound for a slot in geostationary orbit above the Earth\u2019s equator at 148 degrees East, Nusantara Satu carries 26 C-band and 12 extended C-band transponders and eight Ku-band transponders which will produce spot beams. The satellite offers a total bandwidth of 15 gigabits per second.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Nusantara Satu during preparations \u2013 via SSL<\/p>\n
The 4,100 kilogram (9,040 lb) Nusantara Satu spacecraft is expected to operate for at least fifteen years. It will provide communications links to rural parts of Indonesia, allowing PSN to expand broadband internet services into these regions. Nusantara Satu is equipped with electric propulsion which will be used for orbit-raising maneuvers: Falcon 9 will drop the satellite off in an elliptical transfer orbit, with Nusantara Satu using its own engines to reach its final geostationary slot.<\/p>\n
Once it has arrived in geostationary orbit, Nusantara Satu will deploy its subsatellite, S5. This is the US Air Force Research Laboratory\u2019s space situational awareness experiment \u2013 a 60 kilogram (130 lb) spacecraft that will detect and track objects in orbits close to the geostationary belt.<\/p>\n
S5 was constructed by Blue Canyon Technologies, with its instruments provided by Applied Defense Systems. The data it collects will help the Air Force to update its satellite catalog with accurate orbital parameters for these spacecraft and debris objects. S5 is intended as a proof-of-concept to demonstrate that low-cost miniature satellites can be used for accurate tracking of geostationary satellites. It is expected to operate for one year.<\/p>\n
The other payload aboard the Falcon 9 was Beresheet, a Lunar lander developed by Israel\u2019s SpaceIL. Taking its name from the first words of the Book of Genesis \u2013 in the beginning \u2013 in Hebrew, Beresheet will attempt a soft landing in the Moon\u2019s Mare Serenitatis region. If successful it will be not only Israel\u2019s first mission to the moon, but the first spacecraft to land on the Lunar surface that was not funded or operated by a government space agency.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/2018-10-10-231906.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
The lander during processing \u2013 via SpaceIL<\/p>\n
The Soviet Luna 9 spacecraft was the first to make a soft landing on the moon \u2013 touching down on 3 February 1966. It was followed by further unmanned missions in the Soviet Luna and American Surveyor programs, and the manned landings of the US Apollo program from 1969 to 1972. To date, only the Soviet Union, the United States and the People\u2019s Republic of China have landed spacecraft on the moon. China\u2019s Chang\u2019e-3 and Chang\u2019e-4 missions, which arrived in December 2013 and January 2019 respectively, are the only spacecraft to have landed on the Lunar surface since the mid-1970s.<\/p>\n
(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});<\/p>\n
SpaceIL is a non-profit organization that was formed to compete for the Google Lunar X-Prize, a competition organized by the X Prize Foundation and financed by Google which would have awarded twenty million US dollars for the first privately-funded spacecraft to land on the Moon, with a further ten million dollars for other achievements. The rules initially stipulated that the prize would have to be claimed by the end of 2014, and while this was extended several times no competitor was able to launch their mission before the reward finally expired last March.![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/L2-banner@2x.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Despite no longer qualifying for the reward, SpaceIL and several of their competitors have pressed ahead with their landers, with Beresheet the first of these to make it to the launch pad.<\/p>\n
Although it will attempt to become the first privately-operated spacecraft to land on the Moon, Beresheet will not be the first commercial spacecraft to visit Earth\u2019s natural satellite. In late 1997 the Blok-DM3 upper stage of a Russian Proton-K rocket malfunctioned, leaving the AsiaSat-3 communications satellite stranded in an unusable orbit. Renamed HGS-1 and under the ownership of Hughes Space and Communications, the satellite flew past the Moon in May 1998 to gain a gravity assist as part of a complex series of maneuvers that eventually saw it reach geosynchronous orbit.<\/p>\n
After Falcon 9 deployed it into a supersynchronous elliptical transfer orbit, Beresheet will make a series of orbit-raising maneuvers over the course of several weeks in order to reach the Moon. With an on-time liftoff, Beresheet will be expected to arrive in Lunar orbit on 4 April, with its landing a week later.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n