Israel on Thursday was set to join just three other nations who have successfully landed on the moon, with its Beresheet spacecraft due to touch down shortly after 10pm Israel time.
Sadly, the little craft achieved a lunar landing but mission control lost contact as the spacecraft entered a freefall to the moon’s surface.
The project is the brainchild of Israeli entrepreneurs Yariv Bash, Yonatan Weintraub and Kfir Damari, who decided nine years ago to accept a challenge by Google to design a spacecraft that could land on the moon. The challenge ended last month without a winner, but the three – who went on to form SpaceIL with main project sponsor Morris Kahn as chairman – never gave up.
Even Ben-Gurion International Airport joined in the national excitement, listing the little spacecraft on its arrivals board, indicating it was due to land on the moon at 10pm.
Before it began its descent, Beresheet was orbiting the moon at 6,000 km/h, would begin its autonomous landing when it reached 25km above the surface and 800 km from the landing site.
In order to control its landing, Beresheet was to simultaneously fire all nine engines for 15 minutes. When it was 5km above the surface, the craft’s laser instrument to measure its height was to start updating the onboard computer about the distance to ground level so that it could synchronize its engine function.
The spacecraft was slow its advance when it was one kilometer above the surface of the moon, and some 40 seconds from touchdown. When it reached a height of five meters, it as to shut off its engines used for braking, and drop to the surface on four legs specially developed in Israel to cushion the blow.
After landing, Beresheet was to take a selfie and send it back to Earth using NASA satellites recruited to assist the Israeli space mission.
VIDEO: Live broadcast