On Thursday, a small Israeli-built spacecraft launched into orbit on one of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rockets — sparking the beginning of a two-month quest to touch down on the lunar surface. The lander, named Beresheet, will attempt to land on the Moon on April 11th, and if successful, it will be first privately funded vehicle and the first Israeli spacecraft to do so. But while Beresheet is unique in many ways, the lander is just one of many similar lunar spacecraft in development right now.
Up until now, only the United States, Russia, and China have had the money and technological knowhow to land hardware intact on the lunar surface. India hopes to join them with an upcoming Moon mission called Chandrayaan-2 in April.
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