Israeli spacecraft Beresheet (Genesis) was unable to land on the moon April 11.
The four-legged spacecraft created by SpaceIL suffered technical difficulties with the ship’s main engine and then lost communication with the spacecraft at 12:24 p.m. PT.
The Israel Space Agency said the spacecraft appeared to crash on the moon’s surface.
“We had a failure in the spacecraft, we were unable to land successfully,” a SpaceIL engineer said during the live stream.
“If at first, you don’t succeed, you try again,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in front of the SpaceIL team and viewers.
“Small country, big dreams,” was written on the flag of the ship with an image of the Israeli flag.
22 kilometers from the Moon! #IsraelToTheMoon #SpaceIL #Beresheet pic.twitter.com/uw1wAFmt0S
— Israel To The Moon (@TeamSpaceIL) April 11, 2019
Though Israel didn’t become the fourth country to land on the moon, Israel is still the seventh country to orbit around it.
Netanyahu, SpaceIL team, investors and viewers gathered together to sing the Israel national anthem, Hatikva, ending the broadcast.
Following the launch, XPRIZE founder Peter Diamandis said he and his partner and CEO Anousheh Ansari decided to award the SpaceIL team with the $1 million Moonshot Award “for them to continue their work and pursue Beresheet 2.0.”
XPRIZE has designed and launched seventeen prizes in the domain areas of space, oceans, health, energy, robotics and transportation.
Google Lunar XPRIZE created the challenge to build, launch and land a spacecraft on the Moon. Yariv Bash, Kfir Damari and Yonatan Winetraub built Genesis as a result.
“I think they managed to touch the surface of the moon and that’s what we were looking for in our Moonshot Award,” Ansari said in a Twitter video.
XPRIZE to award $1 Million Moonshot Award to SpaceIL team for them to continue their work and pursue Beresheet 2.0. Space is hard!!! @xprize @TeamSpaceIL pic.twitter.com/J4Zo5eaYMT
— Peter H. Diamandis, MD (@PeterDiamandis) April 11, 2019
This story has been updated to include information about XPRIZE and updates on the Genesis spacecraft.
