Science

WATCH: INCREDIBLE moment SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket LIFTS OFF from Florida Air Force station


If successful, Israel will be the fourth country to achieve a controlled touchdown on the moon’s surface. The unmanned robotic lander is called Beresheet, Hebrew for “in the beginning” and was paid for by Israeli non-profit SpaceIL. It blasted off from a 32-story-tall rocket at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at about 8.45pm EST (1.45 GMT).

The moon lander is one part of a trio of spacecrafts attached to the Falcon 9.

The launch is the start of the Nusantara Satu mission for SpaceX involving an Indonesian communications satellite.

The SpaceX website said: “Falcon 9’s first stage for the Nusantara Satu mission previously supported the Iridium-7 mission in July 2018 and the SAOCOM 1A mission in October 2018.

Following stage separation, SpaceX will attempt to land Falcon 9’s first stage on the “Of Course I Still Love You” droneship, which will be stationed in the Atlantic Ocean.”

Nusantara Satu, operated by Indonesian satellite company Pasifik Satelit Nusantara, will provide internet for Indonesia as the country’s first “high-throughput satellite”

The Air Force Rrch Laboratory (AFRL) S5 spacecraft is meant to set whether low-cost satellites could be used for Department of Defence missions.

It will attach to Nusantara Satu then deploy when they are both in orbit.

All these launched from the Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at the Air Force station.

The third is a small experimental satellite for the Air Force, coordinated by Spaceflight Industries, who also organised the Israeli moon lander.

Spaceflight Industries acts as a broker for satellite operators that need to get into space, finding extra room on rockets already launching.

Falcon 9 will drop off the lander at about 60,000km.

It will then spend the next two months stretching its elongated orbit to make it all the way to the moon and achieve lunar orbit.



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