Over the weekend, Beresheet took more photos of the far side of the moon from 550 km. from the moon and from 2500 km. from the moon.
Beresheet is another step closer to landing on the moon.
At 4:36 a.m. on Sunday, Israel’s lunar mission Beresheet successfully performed the first maneuver around the moon, the engineering team of SpaceIL and Israel Aerospace Industries confirmed.
“During the maneuver, Beresheet’s engines operated for about 271 seconds and the amount of fuel burned was approximately 55 kg,” they said. “In this maneuver, all the engines operated at the same time to slow the spacecraft with maximum thrust to date.”
The maneuver, reduced the Apolune, which means the farthest point from the moon, from 10,400 kilometers to 750 km. from the moon.
The Perilune, which is the closest point to the moon, sees Beresheet approximately 460 km. from the moon.
Over the weekend, Beresheet took more photos of the far side of the moon from 550 km. from the moon and from 2500 km. from the moon.
With the success of Lunar Capture, Israel has become the seventh country to enter the moon’s orbit.
During the coming week, intensive maneuvers and preparations for the landing will be conducted.
Beresheet is expected to land on Thursday, April 11.
As reported by The Jerusalem Post