Beresheet

“Beresheet,” named after the first word and the first book in the Torah (meaning “in the beginning”).

The Israeli spacecraft and Lunar rover “Beresheet,” Made by SpaceIL and Israel Aerospace Industries was originally built as part of the Lunar Xprize but failed to meet the deadline of the prize, But SpaceIL pushed on anyway.

Beresheet lifted off from Cape Canaveral on the 22nd Feb 2019 as part of a rideshare on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.

Beresheet entered lunar orbit on Thursday 4th April 2019 on its journey to the moon, is on an “excellent” track, according to overnight data from the engineering teams at their control room in Yehud, Israel.

The spacecraft failed to land on the moon on 11 April 2019.

Beresheet 2 is expected to flyto the Moon in early 2024.

SEE also SpaceIL