ISRAEL’S dreams of becoming the first country to land a private aircraft on the moon were shattered last night after its probe crashed.
The privately funded Beresheet spacecraft had sent mission control a selfie of the vessel descending towards the lunar surface.
But moments later horrified scientists watched as its engine — needed to slow its descent — lost power and communication stopped as it hit the surface.
Engineer Ami Halbersberg said: “The inevitable end was that it fell to the moon’s surface not as one piece.”
The lander — whose name is Hebrew for Genesis — took off almost two months ago from Florida as part of a “ride share” with Elon Musk’s SpaceX. It then circled the Earth in growing orbits until caught by the moon’s gravity.
Non-profit organisation SpaceIL got money from airport bucket collections, school visits and internet donation sites.
The project will be relaunched within three years. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said: “If at first you don’t succeed, try again.”
THE first privately funded spacecraft to the Moon has crashed on the lunar surface after the apparent failure of its main engine.
The Israeli Beresheet probe reached the moon on but its planned controlled or "soft", landing was unsuccessful, the support team said.
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A time capsule was on board the lander - which included a picture of Israeli astronaut Ilan Ramon, who died on the space shuttle Columbia in 2003 .
There was also a lunar library containing 30 million pages on a disk from the US-based Arch Mission Foundation.
So far, only three nations have succeeded in carrying out a "soft" landing on the lunar surface: the United States, the Soviet Union and China.
Brain is a bit spacy
LONG periods in space may damage brain power, a major study suggests.
The finding comes from tests on Nasa astronaut Scott Kelly, 55, who spent nearly 12 months in orbit.
His cognitive abilities had declined compared with those of Earth-bound twin Mark, also an astronaut.
Scott also had signs of accelerated ageing, which can increase the risk of heart disease and cancer.
The researchers, from 12 US universities, warned their findings “could have implications for safe mission operations”.