Israel's first moon probe is headed to the lunar surface

This video grab taken from the Space X webcast transmission on Februrary 21, 2019, shows Nusantara Satu satellite lifting off Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) carrying Israel's Beresheet spacecraft at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida. A SpaceX rocket took off from Florida's Cape Canaveral on Thursday night carrying Israel's Beresheet spacecraft, which aims to make history twice: as the first private-sector landing on the Moon, and the first from the Jewish state. The start of the flight went smoothly, with the first stage entry burn completed uneventfully less than three minutes after lift-off. The Moon landing is scheduled for seven weeks' time, on April 11. (Photo by HO / SPACEX / AFP) / RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE - MANDATORY CREDIT "AFP PHOTO / SPACE X" - NO MARKETING NO ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS - DISTRIBUTED AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS ---HO/AFP/Getty Images less This video grab taken from the Space X webcast transmission on Februrary 21, 2019, shows Nusantara Satu satellite lifting off Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) carrying Israel's Beresheet spacecraft at Cape ... more Photo: Ho, AFP/Getty Images Photo: Ho, AFP/Getty Images Image 1 of / 11 Caption Close Israel's first moon probe is headed to the lunar surface 1 / 11 Back to Gallery

Israel's first moon-bound probe is headed to the lunar surface after a successful launch from Cape Canaveral, Fla., Thursday night -- putting the tiny nation one step closer to becoming the fourth country to land on the moon.

The probe -- called "Beresheet" or "in the beginning" in Hebrew -- launched at 7:45 p.m. on the back of a SpaceX rocket. It is expected to reach the moon by April 11 and, if successful, will be the first commercial lander to reach the moon.

Israeli nonprofit SpaceIL -- the only Israeli contestant competing in the Google Lunar XPRIZE competition that ended last year with no winner -- built the lander for just $100 million. It is not carrying humans to the surface

"We punch far above our weight," said Sylvan Adams, a SpaceIL donor and Canadian-Israeli businessman and philanthropist, during a Wednesday night news conference in Florida. "With Israeli innovation, with Israeli can-do, we've managed to do this on a shoe-string budget and it's something we're very proud of."

The United States remains the only country to leave human footprints on the moon. The other two countries that have sent probes to the surface are the Soviet Union in September 1959 and China in December 2013 and January 2019.

NASA has signed an agreement to "cooperatively utilize" Israel's probe, which will conduct experiments to measure the moon's magnetic field. The agreement essentially means both countries will benefit from this mission.

"We can get all kinds of data and information and good science that NASA needs but we can do it for a fraction of the cost," NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine told Fox News on Thursday.

For example, NASA officials said in October that Israel will share data about the magnetic field of the landing site with the U.S., which will be available publicly via NASA's Planetary Data System. Additionally, NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter — a probe launched in 2009 that is mapping the moon's surface — will try to take measures of the probe as it lands.

Also Thursday, a Japanese probe briefly touched down on an asteroid 200 miles away from Earth, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency announced, grabbing a sample of dust in the process. Japan launched the probe in 2014 and sample will return to Earth late next year.

Israel's historic launch comes as NASA shifts its focus to returning to the moon as a stepping stone for a mission to Mars.

President Donald Trump's $19.9 billion NASA budget for the current fiscal year tasks the agency with launching the first flight without a crew for Orion -- the spacecraft meant to take humans to the moon -- by 2022, followed by a launch of Americans around the moon in 2023.

Additionally, it allows the agency to begin working on the foundation for a mini space station orbiting the moon, known as the Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway, which will involve cooperation with commercial companies and other nations.

"We are building a coalition of nations to return to the moon sustainable and I think Israel can be a big piece of that sustainable return to the moon," Bridenstine told Fox News.

NASA also is relying on commercial companies to build its lunar landers, which they hope will launch as early as this year but no later than Dec. 31, 2021. The space agency in November tapped nine companies, including Houston-based Intuitive Machines, to build the moon probes.

On Thursday, the American space agency announced the first round of 12 experiments that will head to the moon on these landers. They include instruments to measure the radiation environment on the surface, the hydrogen abundance and the magnetic field.

NASA officials said they will work with U.S. companies on reusable system to take astronauts to the surface of the moon. Human-class landers will be tested on the moon beginning 2024, in the hopes that a crew could be sent to the surface by 2028.

Alex Stuckey writes about NASA and the environment for the Houston Chronicle. You can reach her at alex.stuckey@chron.com or Twitter.com/alexdstuckey.