The planned landing of an Israeli spacecraft on the moon has failed. “We didn’t land successfully,” said a representative of the Israeli Nonprofit organization SpaceIL, the operator of the probe. Israel was the seventh country in the world, it had managed to get into the orbit of the moon. According to information provided by SpaceIL, the main engine of the unmanned space probe had failed, with the name of Beresheet in the landing maneuver. The communication with the probe was lost. “There was a Defect in the ship,” said Ofer Doron of Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI).
Israel had hoped to land as the fourth Nation after the great powers Russia, the USA and China on the moon. It was the first privately-funded Mission of this kind. After the failed landing of the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he hoped for a new trial within two to three years. The Israeli billionaire Morris Kahn, the main Sponsor, spoke of a “huge achievement”, despite the failed landing. “We have every reason to be proud of.”
The country of the probe was spun for less than a week to the moon and had mastered several important maneuvers. The landing in the area of the “sea of serenity”, a moon, the sea, headed to you, then, from the optimal point.
seven weeks long trip to the moon had the probe on the 22. February at the space station at Cape Canaveral in the U.S. state of Florida began. It was carried by a Falcon 9 rocket of space travel company SpaceX, Tesla boss Elon Musk in the orbit of the earth.
Beresheet is the Hebrew Name of the 1. The book of Moses (Genesis) in the Bible. The probe with a weight of just 600 kg and 1.50 metres in height should be setting an Israeli flag on the moon and the magnetic field to investigate. On Board was a time capsule with hundreds of digital files. Including a Hebrew Bible, which is stored on a carrier in coin size.
The Israeli SpaceIL wanted to create a prototype for future commercial moon landings. The construction of the probe has cost the equivalent of 84 million euros. The money came mainly from private donors. SpaceIL also receives support from the Israeli space Agency (ISA) and Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI).
To the beginning of the year had SpaceIL, which also cooperates with the U.S. space Agency Nasa, in addition, an agreement with the German space company OHB signed. Are sought in the future the common, commercial moon missions.
The first moon landing had succeeded the Soviet Union in 1966, with the probe Luna-9. In the same year, the US space Agency Nasa with Surveyor 1 was followed. China followed in 2013 with the probe, Chang’e-3, which dropped the Rover Yutu on the moon.
