The first Israeli spacecraft to journey to the moon has passed its “most critical maneuver to date“, when it successfully conducted a “Lunar Capture,” just one week ahead of its scheduled landing.
The maneuver effectively enabled the Israeli spacecraft, dubbed “Beresheet,” to be captured by the moon’s gravity and begin orbiting the moon. The maneuver was conducted with full communication between Beresheet’s control room in Israel and the spacecraft.
In the coming week, with expected intense engineering activities, many more maneuvers will take Beresheet from an elliptical to a round orbit, at a height of 200 kilometers from the moon. The maneuvers will aim to reduce the spacecraft’s distance from the moon, and reach the optimal point to conduct an autonomic landing in the Sea of Serenity, during Israel’s evening hours of the 11th of April.