SpaceIL and IAI engineering teams announced yet another successful maneuver by the Israeli space-craft, which is now in an elliptical orbit where it is expected to leave Earth’s orbit and join the moon’s orbit 405,000 kilometers from Earth.
According to the Space Division General Manager of Israel Aerospace Industries, Ofer Doron, “We performed another successful maneuver for Beresheet. We raised our apogee, which is the furthest part of our trajectory, to about 405,000 kilometers. That’s enough to reach the distance of the moon from the earth, and that is actually our last maneuver to get closer to the moon.” / “So, a successful maneuver. Good work by the engineering teams of Space IL and IAI, and we are on the way to meeting the moon.”
According to an official statement, “The (Israeli) engineering teams are preparing to perform a few (additional) small maneuvers to optimize the spacecraft’s trajectory to the lunar capture, which is expected on April 4th.”