Israel's spacecraft Beresheet fired its engines for 78 seconds to tighten its orbit around the moon yesterday.
"Beresheet entered a circular orbit of 200 km above the moon and will circle it once every two hours," SpaceIL officials tweeted.
The Beresheet space probe is scheduled to touch down between 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. ET on April 11., settling on a vast lava plain on the lunar nearside known as Mare Serenitatis, or the Sea of Serenity. The landing will be livestreamed by SpaceIL.
If all goes well, Beresheet — the name means “genesis” in Hebrew — will not only be the first Israeli spacecraft on the moon but also the first privately funded one to reach the lunar surface, NBC News MACH reported.
