The first privately
funded mission to the Moon has crashed on the lunar surface after the apparent
failure of its main engine. The Israeli spacecraft - called Beresheet -
attempted a soft landing, but suffered technical problems on its descent to the
Moon's surface.
The aim of the mission
was to take pictures and conduct experiments. Israel hoped to become the fourth
country to land a spacecraft on the Moon.
Only government space
agencies from the former Soviet Union, the US and China have made successful
Moon landings. "We didn't make it, but we definitely tried," said
project originator and major backer Morris Kahn.
"I think that the
achievement of getting to where we got is really tremendous, I think we can be
proud," he said. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, watching from the
control room near Tel Aviv, said: "If at first you don't succeed, you try
again."
After a seven-week
journey to the Moon, the unmanned spacecraft approached a final orbit at 15km
(9m) from the surface.v Tensions were high in the command centre as
communications were lost before Opher Doron, the general manager of Israel
Aerospace Indurstries' space division, announced there had been a failure in
the spacecraft.
"We unfortunately
have not managed to land successfully," he said.
As Mr Doron announced
that the engine had cut out, groans filled the room.
"We are resetting
the spacecraft to try to enable the engine," he said. The engine came on
seconds later and the audience applauded, only for communication with the
spacecraft to be lost shortly after. The mission was over. The project has cost
about $100m (£76m) and has paved the way for future low-cost lunar exploration.
Dr Kimberly Cartier,
an astronomer and science news reporter, tweeted that she was "sad about
how #Beresheet ended" but "proud of the entire @TeamSpaceIL".
The average distance
to the Moon is 380,000km (240,000 miles) - Beresheet travelled more than 15
times that distance. And the main thing driving this was cost.
Instead of sitting
alone on a rocket that would put it on the perfect trajectory to the Moon, it
blasted off on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket along with a communications satellite
and an experimental aircraft.
Sharing the ride into
space significantly reduced its launch costs - but it meant the spacecraft had
to take a more convoluted route.
Its first job was to
use its high resolution cameras to take some photos - including a selfie -
which it did manage before the crash.
It was then going to
measure the magnetic field of the spot it landed in, an area known as Mare
Serenitatis.
The lander also
carried a reflector from Nasa to help scientists make accurate measurements of
the distance between the Earth and the Moon.
Temperatures on the
Moon are extreme, and as the Sun rose the spacecraft would have been unlikely
to survive the heat.