The First Commercial Lunar Spacecraft - 20 Years before Israel & Beresheet

A quick update on the news, followed by a story of the first commercial spacecraft to fly to the moon. In 1997 a communications satellite was left in a useless geostationary transfer orbit. Using the small stationkeeping thrusters it was pushed into an orbit that would fly past the moon, correcting the inclination and raising the perigee.
So while it wasn't intended to go there HGS-1 became the first commercial spacecraft to visit the moon.

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