Israel’s Beresheet spacecraft enters lunar orbit and prepares for landing
https://techcrunch.com/2019/04/04/israels-beresheet-spacecraft-enters-lunar-orbit-and-prepares-for-landing/
Beresheet, Israel’s privately funded, engineered, and launched mission to the Moon’s surface, has successfully entered lunar orbit after a month and a half in transit. The craft will now adjust its orbit in preparation for landing on April 11.
The craft was launched on February 21 aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9, accelerating towards the moon in an ever-widening Earth orbit. In a testament to the exactitude of the engineers at SpaceIL, the organization that created the craft, Beresheet finished its burn and entered an elliptical lunar orbit within 9 minutes of the time it was predicted to do so before launch. That’s some rocket science!