Beresheet lander crashes on the Moon
Posted: Sun, Apr 14, 2019, 10:35 AM ET (1435 GMT)
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.
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.
Related Links:
| <<previous article | next article>> |
|
news in brief
|
|
|
|
news links
|
|
Monday, January 19
Proba-3: our eyes on the Sun’s inner corona
ESA — 6:10 am ET (1110 GMT) SpaceX successfully launches Falcon 9 rocket into low-Earth orbit from Cape Canaveral
WESH-TV Orlando — 6:07 am ET (1107 GMT) Small businesses in Higashiosaka launch crowdfunding campaign for lunar exploration robot
Independent Online — 6:06 am ET (1106 GMT) Polish Lawmakers Request Military to Establish Suborbital Spaceport
Militarnyi — 6:03 am ET (1103 GMT) ISRO was set to move on to a new era. PSLV failure has stalled India’s space policy
ThePrint (India) — 6:00 am ET (1100 GMT) |
