CRI听力:Israel's First Spaceship Destined for Moon Exploration

The Israeli government is now keen to follow in the footsteps of the global superpowers by traveling into space and planting their flag on the moon.

Israel has unveiled their Space IL project and intends to build the spacecraft before 2015 for its own purposes of moon exploration.

Israeli President Shimon Peres said at an unveiling ceremony in Jerusalem that compared with the scale of the US space effort, the Israeli effort will be focused on a small scale nature, expressing skill and invention.

"If you want what these guys are doing, it's a small moon for a small people. The American satellite weighs something like two and a half tons. There are 28 American satellites in space. The Israeli satellite weighs 250 kilograms, a tenth of the American."

One of the founders of the space project, Zvi Namari says Space IL will be the first Israeli spaceship.

"Our mission in Space IL is building the first Israeli spaceship, landing it on the moon and we do that through a competition which is called 'Google Lunar X Prize. We are the Israeli team representing Israel in the competition."

So far, only two nations have successfully landed on the moon - the United States and the former Soviet Union.

Israel is one of the few countries in the world to have successfully put a satellite into orbit.

However, Israel does not plan on sending a man into space; not yet at least. Instead, the country simply aims to prove that their technological expertise is as good as that of anywhere else in the world.

The moon has been seen as a potential base for wider space exploration, for example, to Mars.

For Israel, their first small step remains to be trodden, though it plans to do so sometime in the near future.

For CRI, I'm Su Yi.