
A Bumpy Ride to the Moon: Israeli Spacecraft Hits Technical Snag - daegloe
https://www.haaretz.com/science-and-health/.premium-a-bumpy-ride-to-the-moon-israeli-spacecraft-hits-technical-snag-1.6975537
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slurryer
I wonder how many missed maneuvers like this can be missed before the thing
runs out of fuel and tumbles back to earth. Awesome use of retro techniques
though.

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eesmith
When an orbiting spacecraft runs out of fuel, it keeps staying in orbit. It
does not "tumble back to earth" unless it is close enough that the atmosphere
is thick enough to slow it down further.

In this case, perigee is 668 km from the earth, which is in low-earth orbit,
but it's apogee is 69020 km away, or high earth orbit - [https://heavens-
above.com/orbit.aspx?satid=44049&lat=0&lng=0...](https://heavens-
above.com/orbit.aspx?satid=44049&lat=0&lng=0&loc=Unspecified&alt=0&tz=UCT) .

Hubble is about 500 km elevation, and it's expected to take about 30 years for
its orbit to decay, from the last time it was reboosted. For Beresheet it
would be much longer.

