News Brief: SpaceIL, an Israeli team that was once a competitor in the now-defunct Google Lunar X Prize, says it will have its lander launched toward the moon in December. The lander will be a secondary payload on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket taking off from Florida, the team said today in a news release. The plan calls for the lander to execute a series of in-space maneuvers, then touch down on the lunar surface next February to transmit imagery and measure the moon’s magnetic field. SpaceIL says about $88 million has been invested in the project to date, mostly from private donors. Here’s a sampling of tweets about today’s announcement:
https://twitter.com/TeamSpaceIL/status/1016633238008270850
https://twitter.com/TeamSpaceIL/status/1016712846015713281
https://twitter.com/TechnionUSA/status/1016779595792748544
https://twitter.com/cosmos4u/status/1016751887582973952