If everything goes according to plan, Israel will make history.
The country will, for the first time, launch a privately developed moon lander on board a privately built rocket, from a privately organized launch site, setting a milestone in the history of spaceflight.
The mission will be the first completely privatised Moon mission when it launched from Florida. Called 'Beresheet', Hebrew for Genesis, it will make history again if everything goes according to plan and it safely touches down on the Moon's surface on April 11.
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The Beresheet program was originally conceived as a way for the team to enter the GOogle Lunar Xprize competition back in 2010. At the time, it challenged private groups to accomplish a lunar landing, in order to win $30 million. The competition eventually fizzled out last year with no winner, but it had already generated enough interest for Beresheet to go on.
SpaceIL and Israel Aerospace Industries ended up working together to continue the mission. As it stands, Beresheet is taking cameras, a magnetometer and a sort of time capsule to leave on the Moon.
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So far, only Russia, the US, and China have managed to land on the moon, though India is also working towards that goal. Israel however stands to become the fourth to achieve that tomorrow. Beresheet will be ?the lightest spacecraft to land on the Moon and also the cheapest, at $100 million.
And all thanks to private corporations.