Israel’s Beresheet moon spacecraft takes selfie photo with Earth
Last month SpaceX launched the first private lunar lander toward the moon.
The robot is called Beresheet (meaning “in the beginning”) and was made by SpaceIL, a nonprofit organization based in Israel.
Beresheet had some glitches shortly after its launch on February 21, but SpaceIL recovered the robot and expects to land it on April 11.
On Tuesday, Beresheet took a selfie photo with Earth in the background and a placard that reads “small country, big dreams.”
If Beresheet survives its weekslong journey to the moon, Israel will become the fourth country to execute a lunar landing.
The dishwasher-sized robot is a four-legged lander called Beresheet, which is Hebrew for “in the beginning” — the first words of the Bible.
The $100 million mission is headed by a nonprofit called SpaceIL, which is based out of Tel Aviv University and backed primarily by the South African billionaire Morris Kahn.
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