Credit: SpaceIL and Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI)

Israel’s Beresheet lunar lander entered lunar orbit yesterday and is on an “excellent” track, according to overnight data from the SpaceIL and Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) engineering teams at their control room in Yehud, Israel.

Beresheet is scheduled to land on the Moon at about 11 p.m. Israel time on April 11th. However, a more definite time will be announced in the next few days.

A picture taken by Beresheet – the farside of the Moon during the maneuver at a height of 470 kilometers from the Moon. Photo credit: Eliran Avital

 

Delicate maneuvers

During the coming week, SpaceIL and IAI will conduct a series of maneuvers with the spacecraft in preparation for the attempted landing.

Israeli spacecraft captured this picture of the farside of the Moon with Earth in the background – also at 470 kilometers from the lunar surface.
Photo credit: Eliran Avital

Yesterday, during the critical lunar capture maneuver, Beresheet provided pictures of the Moon’s farside while activating its engines.

One Response to “Israeli Moon Lander: On “Excellent” Track”

  • Michael Kaufman says:

    Any idea what the scale of the center image (lunar far side) is? Want to see if I can identify the location in the frame.
    Thanks

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