Israeli spacecraft reaches the moon - with a crash

People watch the live broadcast of the SpaceIL spacecraft as it lost contact with Earth in Netanya, Israel. Photo / AP

Israel was hoping on Thursday to become the fourth nation ever to land a spacecraft on the moon, but the lunar mission, which was broadcast live on Israeli TV and on social media, went awry as the main engine appeared to go into failure and the control center suddenly lost communication with the craft a few minutes before it was to touch down.

"We've landed, but not in the way we wanted to," a commentator in formed a crowd of onlookers including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The newly re-elected leader told the team of scientists, engineers and entrepreneurs gathered at the control center in Yehud in central Israel that they should not be disappointed and that it was still a great achievement. Israel, he said, would try again soon to reach the moon and land in the correct way.

"An Israeli spacecraft will land on the moon, in two years, three years. We'll try again and we'll do it," he said.

Earlier he had said that for homemade vessel named Beresheet, the Hebrew word for Genesis, the first book of the Bible, it "was a great step for mankind and a huge leap for Israel."

The unmanned vessel departed Earth's atmosphere on Feb. 21, hitching a ride on a Falcon 9 commercial rocket belonging to Elon Musk's SpaceX from Cape Canaveral, Fla. Over the past seven weeks, it covered a total distance of about 4 million miles, circling Earth several times before reaching the moon's orbit on April 4. The craft had began preparing for landing on the moon's rocky surface Wednesday.

Measuring 1.5 meters in height and two meters in diameter, Beresheet was the smallest and least expensive spacecraft ever to attempt the journey from Earth to the moon, said those behind the project. The $100 million venture is the first private initiative of its kind, paving the way, said backers, for private space travel in the future.

Seven countries have attempted to land on the moon, but only three have succeeded so far - the first unmanned landing was by the former Soviet Union in 1966, then American astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed in 1969, and in 2013 there was an unmanned landing by China. All were government-sponsored endeavours. This initiative, spearheaded by Israeli nonprofit SpaceIL, was funded mainly by Jewish donors and foundations from around the world.

Before the launch, Morris Kahn, SpaceIL's president and its largest investor, "gifted" the project to Israel and declared it a national project. The move was welcomed by Israel's leadership, and Netanyahu was also present for the launch.

Kahn, a South African-born Israeli billionaire, said that he hoped the initiative would contribute significantly to future space exploration. The aim, he said, was also to inspire a future generation of Israeli children and realize that anything is possible.

The idea for Beresheet began in 2010, when three young Israeli entrepreneurs signed up to compete for the now defunct Google Lunar X Prize. Yariv Bash, Kfir Damari and Yonatan Weintraub hoped to win the $20 million prize by landing an Israeli-built unmanned spaceship on the moon. Though they failed to win the prize - no one did - they went on to create SpaceIL.

The project not only gained financial backing from private investors, it also got support from Israeli government agencies such as Israel Aerospace Industries and the Israel Space Agency. It was these connections that last summer helped facilitate agreements with NASA and Musk's SpaceX.

Israelis have already experienced their share of disappointment and tragedy when it comes to space travel. Israel's only astronaut, Ilan Ramon, was among the seven-member crew of the space shuttle Columbia when it disintegrated upon reentry into the Earth's atmosphere in 2003.