Israeli company sends world's first privately funded mission to moon

The unmanned robotic capsule, called Beresheet, will land on the moon in mid-April

An Israeli spacecraft aboard a SpaceX rocket has launched from Cape Canaveral in Florida, beginning a two-month journey to land on the Moon.

If successful, Israel, a state with fewer than 9 million citizens, will join Russia, the US and China as the only countries to have made a controlled landing on the surface of earth's nearest neighbour.