The surface of the moon as captured by the Israeli spacecraft “Beresheet” with the Earth in the background. Photo: “Beresheet.”

JNS.org – The Israeli spacecraft Beresheet, which entered lunar orbit on Thursday on its journey to the moon, is on an “excellent” track, according to overnight data from the SpaceIL and Israel Aerospace Industries engineering teams at their control room in Yehud, Israel.

During its lunar orbit, Beresheet will be at its nearest point to the moon at 292 miles from the lunar surface and the farthest from the moon at 6,462 miles.

The spacecraft is expected to land on the moon on April 11.

Beresheet, named after the first word and the first book in the Torah (meaning “in the beginning”), lifted off from Cape Canaveral on Feb. 22.

If it succeeds, it will be the first Israeli spacecraft to land on the moon, as well as the first privately owned craft to do so.