
Source: SpaceIL
Israeli moon lander Beresheet is now established in an orbit around the moon and it has been sending home amazing photographs of our ancient satellite, including from its so called “dark side, a side that is never seen from Earth. The pictures, with the moon’s 4.5 billion years old craters clearly visible, give new meaning to the spacecraft’s name Beresheet, which in Hebrew simply means “at the beginning”, though it has often been translated as “Genesis”. The lunar orbit will bring Beresheet to as little 470 Km (292 miles) at perigee and 10,400 Km (6,462 miles) at apogee. Beresheet is expected to land on the moon’s surface next Thursday around 5 PM Eastern time.