Beresheet sent back a selfie during descent 13 miles above the lunar surface, just before its engine problems started. (Credit: SpaceIL) Israel's Beresheet spacecraft, which was set to land on the moon today, suffered an engine and communications failure, causing it to instead crash into the lunar surface. Details are still emerging about what exactly went wrong. Within the last five minutes or so of the landing procedure, mission control reported temporarily losing telemetry data before regaining it again. Shortly after, the main engine shut off, but engineers managed to restart it. Then, they reported a communications failure, followed by a few tense minutes of waiting. Finally, they announced the loss of the spacecraft, bringing the mission to a undesired end.
The control room gave a round of applause nonetheless, recognizing the tremendous achievement they still accomplished. With the flight of Beresheet, Israel became the seventh nation to orbit the ...
