spacetoday.net: Beresheet lander crashes on the Moon

Posted: Sun, Apr 14, 2019, 10:35 AM ET (1435 GMT)
SpaceIL lander concept, Oct 2015 (SpaceIL)

SpaceIL's Beresheeet lander crashed into the surface of the Moon Thursday after its main engine malfunctioned. The initial stages of the lander's descent appeared to be going well until the main engine issue. Controllers tried resetting the spacecraft's systems to get the engine working again, but that effort appeared to be too late to salvage the landing. The $100 million spacecraft, built by Israel Aerospace Industries for SpaceIL, would have been the first privately funded spacecraft to soft land on the Moon, and made Israel only the fourth country to accomplish the feat. SpaceIL, a competitor in the former Google Lunar X Prize, will still receive a $1 million "Moonshot Award" from the X Prize Foundation for coming close to landing. SpaceIL's chairman, billionaire Morris Kahn, announced later that the organization would attempt a second mission to land on the Moon.