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Vincent Fournier

The Beresheet lander could not transmit high-definition photos and video back to Earth—a key mission goal—without its transponder, a custom-built device made by U.S.-based firm Space Micro.

A girl wears her official spacesuit costume at SpaceIL team headquarters in Tel Aviv.

Wearing her official spacesuit costume at team headquarters in Tel Aviv, Yuval Klinger is enthusiastically tracking the Israeli organization’s progress—and contemplating whether spacefaring may be a part of her future career plans. She is far from alone in her interest. “We wanted all kids in Israel to be heads-up about this,” says SpaceIL’s former CEO, Eran Privman, in a prior interview with National Geographic magazine. “We want these kids to be able to explain to their parents what’s going on.”

A partial model of SpaceIL's Beresheet lander rests in an echo-free chamber that absorbs electromagnetic waves, enabling engineers to test how its antennas will transmit and receive data while on the moon.

At SpaceIL’s facility near Tel Aviv, a thermal vacuum chamber creates the same intense heat the lander will encounter during the moon’s daytime, which is equivalent to continuous sunlight for 14 Earth days.