Israel’s Lunar Lander Just Crashed Into The Surface of the Moon

Israel’s lunar lander, known as Beresheet, was built by SpaceIL – an Israeli space nonprofit organization – crashed into the Moon’s surface on April 11.

The spacecraft experienced engine failure during its final approach to the Moon. If it wasn’t for the aforementioned reason, Israel’s attempt to land their spacecraft had been successful. Not to mentioned, it would have made Israel the fourth country that reached the surface of the Moon, also the first country to send a private lunar lander on the Moon.

It was stated by Opher Doron –general manager of Israel Aerospace Industries – on a live stream that due to a failure of the spacecraft that lead to the unsuccessful landing.

While the Beresheet was making its approach onto the Moon’s surface, its main engine failed and the spacecraft was forced to have its engine restarted. It was stated that the main engine failed when there were only about 6.2 miles (10 kilometers) left to the surface of the Moon.

The spacecraft did successfully restart its engine, however, according to SpaceIL, by the time the main engine restarted, the spacecraft had already reached a huge velocity that could not be slowed down. After that, the spacecraft traveled at approximately 134 meters per second (approximately 482 kilometers per hour) and eventually crashed into the Moon surface.

However, the failure this time couldn't prevent Israel's effort to land on the Moon, Benjamin Netanyahu – Israel’s Prime Minister – stated that the country will make the landing in their second attempt. This may suggest another expedition mission, which will now be funded by the government in the next few years or sooner.

SpaceIL is currently planning for a number of comprehensive tests for next week to digging into what kind of events that had led to the spacecraft failure in landing. However, there wasn’t any further information about the crash except for what’s given above.