Last-minute ‘glitch’ doomed Israel’s Beresheet lander

SpaceIL and the Israeli Aerospace Agency (IAI), who built and operated Beresheet, have released a few specifics about the spacecraft’s last moments. The trouble began when the lander was just 8.7 miles above the lunar surface, and was caused by a vague “technical glitch in one of Beresheet’s components.” This led to a chain of events that ended with the main engine shut down. Engineers managed to restart the engine, but by that point, Beresheet was moving too fast to avoid a crash. When mission control lost contact with the spacecraft, it was less than 500 feet from the surface, and moving at more than 300 mph.

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The control room gave a round of applause nonetheless, recognizing the tremendous achievement they still accomplished. With the flight of Beresheet, SpaceIL became the first private company to orbit the Moon, and Israel became the seventh nation to do so. They are technically also the fourth to land on its surface, though not in the way they had hoped for.

In a press release, Harel Locker, Chairman of IAI, called the mission “a tremendous technological achievement for the State of Israel. … This project lasted eight years and contributed significantly to the Israeli space industry, which today became one of the leading space industries in the world. Space travel is infinite, exciting, and inspirational.”