SpaceX successfully completed its 70th mission: an Israeli probe goes to the moon

The company SpaceX many grand projectslike building a million ground satellite stations for the Starlink project. However, the organization Ilona Mask does not forget to accept and execute orders from outside: she successfully completed the 70th mission and sent the Bereshit lunar probe from SpaceIL, an Israeli company, into orbit. The launch vehicle was the Falcon 9, the first stage of which was used for the third time.

Probe "Bereshit" keeps its way to the moon - the companySpaceIL has already confirmed the performance of the spacecraft and assured that it is on the right course. It is expected that he will land on the surface of the Earth satellite very soon, namely on April 11, 2019. If everything passes without mistakes and sudden problems, Israel will become the fourth country that has landed a probe on the moon. These countries currently include Russia, the USA and China.

In addition, the "Bereshit" will be the first moonmission carried out by a private company. The device was designed for the Google Lunar X Prize competition, the prize fund of which was $ 20 million. In March 2018, the competition was canceled due to the fact that no company had met the deadlines, but SpaceIL still continued to develop the device.

The name of the probe can be translated from Hebrew as"Being". It weighs 585 kilograms, and about 400 kilograms is the weight of the fuel required for the flight to the moon. The landing module is equipped with a magnetometer, reflectors and a high resolution camera. If possible, the device will take on the photo tools left after the Luna-21 missions (USSR, 1973) and Apollo 17 (USA, 1972).

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