Israel to make history this week with Moon landing

In another show of God’s promises fulfilled in restoring the Jewish people to their land and destiny, Israel will make history this week when it launches a ship into outer space. When it lands on the moon, Israel will become only the fourth country to ever make a lunar landing – after Russia, the U.S. and China.

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The ship – called “Beresheet,” Hebrew for Genesis – has been undergoing final tests in Cape Canaveral, Florida for the past several weeks after the space ship was delivered to Floriday from Israel January 25.

SpaceIL’s mission to the moon began as part of the Google Lunar X Prize competition. SpaceIL was the only Israeli team that participated in the competition, which originally offered a first prize of $30 million to the privately-funded team that could put a robotic spacecraft on the moon, move the craft 1,640 feet (500 meters) and have it beam high-definition photos and video back to Earth.

Weather permitting, the liftoff is scheduled to take place from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on Thursday, February 21 at 8:45 PM EST (7:45 PM Central). The ship will ride aboard SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket. The SpaceIL ship will be accompanied by several other satellites and research equipment, all of which will jettisoned first. The Beresheet will be the last craft dropped off and will begin its long journey to the moon completely by itself.

The Falcon 9 was first created in 2010. It has launched more than 60 times and has a success rate of 96.8%. “Please cross your fingers because this is a hard mission and we need all the help that we can get,” SpaceIL co-founder Yonatan Winetraub said.

It is an amazing feat with Biblical implication. Just two generations after the majority of Jews in Europe were murdered, Israel, reborn as a nation for the first time since before Roman conquest two thousand years ago, has become a beacon of light to the world through medicine, tech, agriculture, and now space exploration.

Experts say that everyday, the average person benefits and uses at least 12 things that were invented or developed in Israel. Those include the iPhone operating system, cherry tomatoes, security for your online banking, medicines, produce farmed with low-water technology and communications apps.

A live video feed will begin at approximately 8:30 PM EST on Thursday, February 21 (3:30 AM in Israel).

You can watch live by visiting the Metro Voice Facebook page.

–Metro Voice