First Israeli Spacecraft, Beresheet, To Launch Moon Mission This Week ndtv.com

TEL AVIV, ISRAEL: Israel is to launch its first moon mission this week, sending an unmanned spacecraft to collect data to be shared with NASA, organisers said Monday. The 585-kilogram (1,290-pound) Beresheet (Genesis) spacecraft is to lift off atop a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida at around 0145 GMT on Friday. Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) and technology NGO SpaceIL announced the date at a press conference. Mission control will be in Yehud, near Tel Aviv. "We are entering history and are proud to belong to a group that has dreamed and fulfilled the vision shared by many countries in the world but that so far only three of them have accomplished," SpaceIL president Morris Kahn said. So far only Russia, the United States and China have sent spacecraft to the moon.