Doomed Beresheet spacecraft snapped this picture moments before crashing into Moon

Israel’s Beresheet spacecraft snapped a stunning picture of the Moon moments before it crashed into the lunar surface Thursday.

The spacecraft experienced an engine problem seconds before it was expected to reach the Moon. Beresheet was just a few hundred feet above the lunar surface when Mission Control in Yehud, Israel, lost contact with the probe.

The lander would have been the first private mission to reach the Moon.

Beresheet, which is Hebrew for “in the beginning,” was developed by the Israeli nonprofit SpaceIL and the state-owned Israel Aerospace Industries.

“Preliminary data supplied by the engineering teams of SpaceIL and Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) suggests a technical glitch in one of Beresheet's components triggered the chain of events yesterday that caused the main engine of the spacecraft to malfunction,” the Mission explained, in a statement released Friday. “Without the main engine working properly, it was impossible to stop Beresheet's velocity. Beresheet overcame the issue by restarting the engine. However, by that time, its velocity was too high to slow down and the landing could not be completed as planned.”

Data show that the first technical issue occurred 14 km (8.7 miles) above the Moon. Contact with spacecraft was lost when it was 150 meters (492) feet above the lunar surface. “Beresheet was moving vertically at 500 km/h (310.7 miles) to the inevitable collision with the lunar surface,” the Mission explained. “Comprehensive tests will be held next week to gain a better understanding of the events,” it added.


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