{"id":18088,"date":"2019-04-11T23:38:24","date_gmt":"2019-04-11T15:38:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/israels-beresheet-lander-crashes-on-moon-ending-privately-funded-space-odyssey\/"},"modified":"2019-04-11T23:38:24","modified_gmt":"2019-04-11T15:38:24","slug":"israels-beresheet-lander-crashes-on-moon-ending-privately-funded-space-odyssey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/israels-beresheet-lander-crashes-on-moon-ending-privately-funded-space-odyssey\/","title":{"rendered":"Israel\u2019s Beresheet lander crashes on moon, ending privately funded space odyssey"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_491607\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-491607\" style=\"width: 630px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-491607 size-full-width\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/Screen-Shot-2019-04-11-at-1.06.55-PM-630x396.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"630\" height=\"396\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/Screen-Shot-2019-04-11-at-1.06.55-PM-630x396.png 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/Screen-Shot-2019-04-11-at-1.06.55-PM-768x483.png 768w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/Screen-Shot-2019-04-11-at-1.06.55-PM-1260x792.png 1260w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/Screen-Shot-2019-04-11-at-1.06.55-PM.png 1410w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-491607\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A picture sent back to Earth from the Beresheet lander during its descent shows the moon\u2019s cratered surface 22 kilometers (13.6 miles) below. In the foreground, a sign emblazoned with the Israeli flag is mounted to the spacecraft itself. (SpaceIL Photo \/ Twitter)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>An Israeli-built lander crashed onto the moon today during its final descent, bringing an unfortunate end to the first privately funded lunar mission.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe had a failure on the spacecraft,\u201d Opher Doron, general manager of Israel Aerospace Industries\u2019 space division, said during a live webcast of the spacecraft\u2019s landing attempt. \u201cWe unfortunately have not managed to land successfully.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The crash was traced to an apparent engine malfunction. It came a month and a half after the dishwasher-sized lander was sent into space by a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket&nbsp;with a pre-launch logistical assist from Seattle-based Spaceflight.<\/p>\n<p>The Beresheet lander, which took its name from the Hebrew phrase for \u201cIn the Beginning,\u201d was funded with nearly $100 million in private money, led by Israeli billionaire Morris Kahn\u2019s $40 million contribution. Las Vegas casino magnate Sheldon Adelson provided another $24 million for the effort.<\/p>\n<p><iframe id=\"twitter-widget-0\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" allowtransparency=\"true\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" class=\"\" style=\"position: absolute; visibility: hidden; width: 0px; height: 0px; display: block; flex-grow: 1;\" title=\"X Post\" src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/embed\/Tweet.html?creatorScreenName=b0yle&amp;dnt=true&amp;embedId=twitter-widget-0&amp;features=eyJ0ZndfdGltZWxpbmVfbGlzdCI6eyJidWNrZXQiOltdLCJ2ZXJzaW9uIjpudWxsfSwidGZ3X2ZvbGxvd2VyX2NvdW50X3N1bnNldCI6eyJidWNrZXQiOnRydWUsInZlcnNpb24iOm51bGx9LCJ0ZndfdHdlZXRfZWRpdF9iYWNrZW5kIjp7ImJ1Y2tldCI6Im9uIiwidmVyc2lvbiI6bnVsbH0sInRmd19yZWZzcmNfc2Vzc2lvbiI6eyJidWNrZXQiOiJvbiIsInZlcnNpb24iOm51bGx9LCJ0ZndfZm9zbnJfc29mdF9pbnRlcnZlbnRpb25zX2VuYWJsZWQiOnsiYnVja2V0Ijoib24iLCJ2ZXJzaW9uIjpudWxsfSwidGZ3X21peGVkX21lZGlhXzE1ODk3Ijp7ImJ1Y2tldCI6InRyZWF0bWVudCIsInZlcnNpb24iOm51bGx9LCJ0ZndfZXhwZXJpbWVudHNfY29va2llX2V4cGlyYXRpb24iOnsiYnVja2V0IjoxMjA5NjAwLCJ2ZXJzaW9uIjpudWxsfSwidGZ3X3Nob3dfYmlyZHdhdGNoX3Bpdm90c19lbmFibGVkIjp7ImJ1Y2tldCI6Im9uIiwidmVyc2lvbiI6bnVsbH0sInRmd19kdXBsaWNhdGVfc2NyaWJlc190b19zZXR0aW5ncyI6eyJidWNrZXQiOiJvbiIsInZlcnNpb24iOm51bGx9LCJ0ZndfdXNlX3Byb2ZpbGVfaW1hZ2Vfc2hhcGVfZW5hYmxlZCI6eyJidWNrZXQiOiJvbiIsInZlcnNpb24iOm51bGx9LCJ0ZndfdmlkZW9faGxzX2R5bmFtaWNfbWFuaWZlc3RzXzE1MDgyIjp7ImJ1Y2tldCI6InRydWVfYml0cmF0ZSIsInZlcnNpb24iOm51bGx9LCJ0ZndfbGVnYWN5X3RpbWVsaW5lX3N1bnNldCI6eyJidWNrZXQiOnRydWUsInZlcnNpb24iOm51bGx9LCJ0ZndfdHdlZXRfZWRpdF9mcm9udGVuZCI6eyJidWNrZXQiOiJvbiIsInZlcnNpb24iOm51bGx9fQ%3D%3D&amp;frame=false&amp;hideCard=false&amp;hideThread=false&amp;id=1116423800634036224&amp;lang=en&amp;origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.geekwire.com%2F2019%2Fberesheet-israel-lander-moon%2F&amp;sessionId=0b022a9c42f1d21fb7b862a71a55e84b2c3b1e81&amp;siteScreenName=geekwire&amp;theme=light&amp;widgetsVersion=6a3ad42b224df%3A1778106238597&amp;width=550px\" data-tweet-id=\"1116423800634036224\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\" data-twitter-extracted-i1782801543953595237=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">MISSION FAILED: Israel\u2019s Beresheet spacecraft was unable to land on the moon, ending SpaceIL\u2019s bid to be the first private organization to accomplish the feat pic.twitter.com\/v1XNU8r3Ih<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Bloomberg Originals (@bbgoriginals) April 11, 2019<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><script async=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>The nonprofit SpaceIL team behind the mission was founded in 2011 to go after the top award in the $30 million Google Lunar X Prize competition. The challenge was created to encourage private-sector lunar exploration, but the deadline came and went last year before any team could mount a moonshot.<\/p>\n<p>Nevertheless, SpaceIL\u2019s team of about 50 engineers and entrepreneurs persisted. In league with state-owned Israel Aerospace Industries, SpaceIL worked with SpaceX and Spaceflight to arrange February\u2019s launch on the Falcon 9 as a secondary payload.<\/p>\n<p>Beresheet\u2019s rocket engine executed a series of maneuvers to stretch out its elliptical orbit around Earth, and last week the spacecraft made the transition from Earth orbit to lunar orbit. That set the stage for today\u2019s final descent.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe didn\u2019t make it,\u201d Kahn said. \u201cBut we definitely tried. The achievement of getting to where we got is really tremendous. I think we can be proud.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Peter Diamandis, co-founder and executive chairman of XPRIZE, was at Mission Control in Yahud, Israel, for the landing. In an email sent before the mission\u2019s end, Diamandis said the mission \u201cwill no doubt chart the path towards a new generation of low-cost scientific lunar landers.\u201d Israel Aerospace Industries already has forged a partnership with Germany\u2019s OHB System AG to build future lunar landers modeled after Beresheet.<\/p>\n<p>Despite the failed landing, XPRIZE plans to give SpaceIL a $1 million \u201cMoonshot Award\u201d in recognition of the team\u2019s achievement.<\/p>\n<p><iframe id=\"twitter-widget-1\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" allowtransparency=\"true\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" class=\"\" style=\"position: absolute; visibility: hidden; width: 0px; height: 0px; display: block; flex-grow: 1;\" title=\"X Post\" src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/embed\/Tweet.html?creatorScreenName=b0yle&amp;dnt=true&amp;embedId=twitter-widget-1&amp;features=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%3D%3D&amp;frame=false&amp;hideCard=false&amp;hideThread=false&amp;id=1116429177778049024&amp;lang=en&amp;origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.geekwire.com%2F2019%2Fberesheet-israel-lander-moon%2F&amp;sessionId=0b022a9c42f1d21fb7b862a71a55e84b2c3b1e81&amp;siteScreenName=geekwire&amp;theme=light&amp;widgetsVersion=6a3ad42b224df%3A1778106238597&amp;width=550px\" data-tweet-id=\"1116429177778049024\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\" data-twitter-extracted-i1782801543953595237=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">XPRIZE to award $1 Million Moonshot Award to SpaceIL team for them to continue their work and pursue Beresheet 2.0. Space is hard!!!  \u2066@xprize\u2069 \u2066@TeamSpaceIL\u2069 pic.twitter.com\/J4Zo5eaYMT<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Peter H. Diamandis, MD (@PeterDiamandis) April 11, 2019<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><script async=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>The lander carried a high-resolution video camera system, a&nbsp;magnetometer to map the moon\u2019s magnetic field and a mirror-like retroreflector. A CD-sized \u201ctime capsule\u201d containing digitized files of children\u2019s drawings, photographs and information about Israeli culture was also placed aboard Beresheet.<\/p>\n<p>An Israeli flag was emblazoned on the spacecraft, befitting a probe that\u2019s as much about Israeli pride as it is about lunar science or commercial space exploration. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, fresh from this week\u2019s apparent victory in parliamentary elections, tweeted good-luck wishes before the landing:<\/p>\n<p>After the landing, Netanyahu had consoling words from Mission Control. \u201cIf at first you don\u2019t succeed, you try again,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Beresheet made Israel\u2019s team the seventh space effort to put a spacecraft in orbit around the moon, after the United States, Russia, China, India, Japan and the European Space Agency. A safe lunar landing would have made Israel the fourth country to succeed at such a feat, after Russia, the United States and China.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_491678\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-491678\" style=\"width: 630px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full-width wp-image-491678\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/190411-moon2-630x518.jpg\" alt=\"Moon picture from Beresheet\" width=\"630\" height=\"518\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/190411-moon2-630x518.jpg 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/190411-moon2.jpg 721w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-491678\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">One of the last pictures sent back by the Beresheet lander shows the lunar surface. (Team SpaceIL Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A picture sent back to Earth from the Beresheet lander during its descent shows the moon\u2019s cratered surface 22 kilometers (13.6 miles) below. In the foreground, a sign emblazoned with the Israeli flag is mounted to the spacecraft itself. (SpaceIL Photo \/ Twitter) An Israeli-built lander crashed onto the moon today during its final descent, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2670,1672,625,2700,5034],"class_list":["post-18088","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-google-lunar-x-prize","tag-israel","tag-moon","tag-spaceil","tag-xprize"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18088"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18088"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18088\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18088"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18088"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18088"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}