Space & Astronomy

Israel's unmanned probe crashes on the Moon

By T.K. Randall
April 12, 2019

Image: Full Moon
Credit: Thom Rains / CC BY 3.0 (adapted) At around the size of a washing machine and weighing in at 585kg, the robotic lander, which is called Beresheet (the Hebrew word for Genesis), launched atop a SpaceX rocket from Florida in February.

The project, which cost around $90 million, was privately funded by a number of backers including South African-born Israeli billionaire Morris Kahn and philanthropist Miriam Adelson.

Sadly however, as it descended towards the lunar surface on Thursday, a problem with one of its inertial measurement units resulted in a loss of control, sending it plummeting to its doom."We had a failure of the spacecraft," said Opher Doron of Israel Aerospace Industries. "We unfortunately have not managed to land successfully."

Even so, the mission itself has been hailed as a major step forward for the private space sector and there are already plans to attempt another landing in a couple of years' time.

"If at first you don't succeed, you try again," said Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.


Source: Spaceflight Now

Tags: Moon, Israel