Israeli non-profit SpaceIL and Israel Aerospace Industries (AIA) began their journey to send a spacecraft to the moon by safely transporting it from Ben Gurion Airport to Orlando, Florida on January 18. The spacecraft will then launch next month at the SpaceX Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, according to SpaceIL.
“After eight years of hard work, our dream has come true: We finally have a spacecraft,” SpaceIL CEO Ido Anteby said in a statement. “Shipping the spacecraft to the United States is the first stage of a complicated and historic journey to the moon.”
SpaceIL was founded by three engineers in 2011 who were competing for the international Google Lunar XPRIZE challenge to build, launch and land an unmanned lunar spacecraft.
“This is the first of many exciting moments, as we look forward to the forthcoming launch in Cape Canaveral,” Anteby said.
The spacecraft will be deployed from the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket when it reaches approximately 60,000 kilometers above Earth’s surface and begin orbiting the Earth.
IAI Director of Logistics Eyal Shitrit said that though IAI has extensive experience in complex shipping projects, “the transporting of Beresheet [Hebrew for “In the Beginning”] is a unique challenge since this is a once-in-a-lifetime mission and there is no backup plan – this spacecraft must arrive safely.”
Upon completing its first lunar mission, Israel will join China, Russia, and the United States in landing a spacecraft on the moon.
Morris Kahn, philanthropist, businessman and SpaceIL’s president, took the lead in completing the mission and financed $40 million for the project.
“The excitement we all feel today will only intensify moving forward, and I can’t wait for the next milestone,” Kahn said in a statement. “This is only the beginning.”
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