A  Moon lander will soon be launched from Cape Canaveral in Florida. SpaceIL, a non-profit Israeli organization is about to send the first private-funded spacecraft to the Moon. Israel aim to be the fourth country in the world, after USA, Russia and China, to make a soft landing on the Moon.

SSC is very proud to be part of this unique and exciting mission. Our worldwide ground satellite station network will support the launch and early orbit phase (LEOP), as well as the whole journey, landing on the Moon.

The SpaceIL mission started off as a response to the international Google Lunar XPRIZE competition: a modern race to the Moon. The competition included three tasks; make a soft landing on the Moon, travel 500 meters on, above, or below the surface of the Moon and send high definition video and pictures back to Earth.

The prize sponsor Google extended the deadline a couple of times, but at the end of March 2018, they decided not to extend it again. However, the SpaceIL team, one of three finalists, chose to continue the mission.

Learn more about the mission at spaceil.com

Image: Visualization of the SpaceIL moon lander. Credit: SpaceIL