First Private Israel Lunar Mission to Be Launched This Week

Technicians stand next to the SpaceIL lunar module, an unmanned spacecraft, is on display in a special "clean room" where the spacecraft is being developed, during a press tour of their facility near Tel Aviv, Israel. SpaceIL and state-owned Israel Aerospace Industries told a news conference that the landing craft will take off from Florida, to its weekslong voyage to the moon. AP Photo/Ariel Schalit, File

RAMAT GAN, Israel—A nonprofit Israeli consortium said on Feb. 18, that it hopes to make history this week by launching the first private aircraft to land on the moon.

SpaceIL and state-owned Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) told a news conference that the landing craft—dubbed “Beresheet,” or Genesis—will take off from Florida, propelled by a SpaceX Falcon rocket on its weekslong voyage to the moon.