SpaceIL’s engineering team and Israel Aerospace Industries are in their final critical week with Israel's lunar spacecraft due to land on the moon on Thursday. Meanwhile, Beresheet has been sending back images of the moon as part of one of its final maneuvers at a distance of 470 kilometers from the moon's surface.
The spacecraft's engineering team has again detected problems with Beresheet's star trackers and the impact on the landing is being examined.
However, Beresheet has successfully conducted the most critical maneuver to date of Israeli space craft Beresheet’s journey to the moon - the Lunar Capture. This maneuver enabled the spacecraft to be captured by the moon’s gravity and begin orbiting the moon - and with the moon, orbiting the Earth.
If all goes to plan Israel will become the world's fourth country to land a craft on the moon on Thursday, following the US, Soviet Union and China.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on April 7, 2019
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