We have liftoff! Israel makes history with Moon launch

Abigail Klein Leichman

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The Falcon 9 launches into space. Photo courtesy SpaceIL

In an emotional and historic moment for Israel, the Beresheet unmanned spacecraft dreamed up by the nonprofit organization SpaceIL launched flawlessly in a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida at 8:45pm February 21 (3:45am February 22 Israel time).

The famed countdown was recited in English in Florida, and in Hebrew at Israel Aerospace Industries’ control center in Yehud. The liftoff of the first nongovernmental mission to the Moon, and the first to use a commercial launch, was watched live by tens of thousands of people on Facebook and YouTube.

Comments and congratulations poured in from viewers in Mexico, New Zealand, Portugal, Ecuador, South Africa, India and the United States from New York to Montana, among other points on the globe, as Beresheet sped into space and separated from the launcher at 9:20 Florida time.

Six minutes later, right on schedule, the spacecraft was fully deployed and under the management of the IAI control center, beginning a seven-to-eight-week journey toward touchdown on the Moon’s Sea of Tranquility.

Inscribed on the craft are the words “Am Yisrael Chai” (“the nation of Israel lives”) and inside is a time capsule containing digital files including a nano Bible, Israeli national symbols and children’s drawings.

SpaceIL’s Beresheet spacecraft is on its way to the Moon. Photo: courtesy

The craft also carries instruments to measure the magnetic field of the Moon to help determine its origins.

Jubilant SpaceIL founders Yonatan Winetraub and Kfir Damari were on site at Cape Canaveral along with key personnel from SpaceIL and IAI and funders of the $100 million mission. Their cofounder, Yariv Bash, was in Yehud along with dignitaries including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

‘Three engineers walk into a bar’

The night before the launch, Winetraub related to reporters how he, Bash and Damari first discussed the idea of a Moon mission over drinks in a pub in the Tel Aviv suburb of Holon.

“Three engineers walk into a bar and come out with the design of a spaceship,” said Winetraub. “Sounds like the beginning of a joke, but this is what happened about eight and a half years ago.”

SpaceIL founders, from left, Yonatan Winetraub, Kfir Damari and Yariv Bash. Photo: courtesy

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