Beresheet spacecraft: 'Technical glitch' led to Moon crash

[Eugene]

Source: BBC

Beresheet spacecraft: 'Technical glitch' led to Moon crash

By Rebecca Morelle
Science Correspondent, BBC News

12 April 2019

Preliminary data from the Beresheet spacecraft suggests a technical glitch in one of its components caused the lander to crash on the Moon.

The malfunction triggered a chain of events that eventually caused its main engine to switch off.

Despite a restart, this meant that the spacecraft was unable to slow down during the final stages of its descent.

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The engineering team at SpaceIL and Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) said that the first technical issue occurred 14km above the lunar surface. This would have been moments after it sent a selfie of its descent.

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Read more: https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-47914100


Pictures of the moon taken by Beresheet as it made its descent (SpaceIL)

[hunter]

1. Perhaps they used an off-the-shelf component secretly hobbled to prevent military use.

It would be ironic if a secret program to frustrate Iranian missile builders caused an Israeli spacecraft to crash.