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Moon Landing By Israel's Beresheet Spacecraft Appears To End In Crash (gizmodo.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The New York Times: A small spacecraft that has captured the imagination and excitement of people in Israel and around the world appears to have crashed on the moon (Warning: source may be paywalled; alternative source). "We had a failure in the spacecraft," said Opher Doron, the general manager of Israel Aerospace Industries' space division, which collaborated on building the spacecraft. "We unfortunately have not managed to land successfully."
If it had succeeded, the robotic lander, named Beresheet, which means "Genesis" or "in the beginning" in Hebrew, would have been the first on the moon built by a private organization, and it would have added Israel to just three nations -- the United States, the former Soviet Union, and China -- to have accomplished that feat. Beresheet reached the launchpad and was headed to space aboard a SpaceX rocket in February. It orbited the moon, by itself a major accomplishment. That has only been done by five nations -- the United States, the former Soviet Union, China, Japan and India -- and the European Space Agency. But the landing was the riskiest part of the mission. The start of the automated landing sequence went as planned. The spacecraft even took a picture of itself at an altitude of 13 miles with the moon in the background. Then, still high above the surface, the engine cut out. The appointed landing time -- 10:25 p.m. in Israel, or 3:25 p.m. Eastern time -- came and passed, and the SpaceIL team realized the mission was over. "Well we didn't make it, but we definitely tried," said Morris Kahn, an Israeli telecommunications entrepreneur and president of SpaceIL, the nonprofit that undertook the mission. "And I think the achievement of getting to where we got is really tremendous. I think we can be proud."
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel said, "If at first you don't succeed, you try again."
If it had succeeded, the robotic lander, named Beresheet, which means "Genesis" or "in the beginning" in Hebrew, would have been the first on the moon built by a private organization, and it would have added Israel to just three nations -- the United States, the former Soviet Union, and China -- to have accomplished that feat. Beresheet reached the launchpad and was headed to space aboard a SpaceX rocket in February. It orbited the moon, by itself a major accomplishment. That has only been done by five nations -- the United States, the former Soviet Union, China, Japan and India -- and the European Space Agency. But the landing was the riskiest part of the mission. The start of the automated landing sequence went as planned. The spacecraft even took a picture of itself at an altitude of 13 miles with the moon in the background. Then, still high above the surface, the engine cut out. The appointed landing time -- 10:25 p.m. in Israel, or 3:25 p.m. Eastern time -- came and passed, and the SpaceIL team realized the mission was over. "Well we didn't make it, but we definitely tried," said Morris Kahn, an Israeli telecommunications entrepreneur and president of SpaceIL, the nonprofit that undertook the mission. "And I think the achievement of getting to where we got is really tremendous. I think we can be proud."
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel said, "If at first you don't succeed, you try again."
Maybe the logic to power off the device to avoid doing work on Sabbat kicked in too early due to clock skew?
would have been the first on the moon built by a private organization
Oh it's on the moon. :-(
Jokes aside I was really sad to see this fail, I tried watching the livestream a bit but was too late and didn't realize it had crashed.
I hope they do try again, and NASA gives them another reflector array to try and plant there...
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
It amazes me that so many allegedly "educated" people have fallen so quickly and so hard for a fraudulent fabrication of such laughable proportions. The very idea that a gigantic ball of rock happens to orbit our planet, showing itself in neat, four-week cycles -- with the same side facing us all the time -- is ludicrous. Furthermore, it is an insult to common sense and a damnable affront to intellectual honesty and integrity. That people actually believe it is evidence that the liberals have wrested the last vestiges of control of our public school system from decent, God-fearing Americans (as if any further evidence was needed! Daddy's Roommate? God Almighty!)
Documentaries such as Enemy of the State have accurately portrayed the elaborate, byzantine network of surveillance satellites that the liberals have sent into space to spy on law-abiding Americans. Equipped with technology developed by Handgun Control, Inc., these satellites have the ability to detect firearms from hundreds of kilometers up. That's right, neighbors .. the next time you're out in the backyard exercising your Second Amendment rights, the liberals will see it! These satellites are sensitive enough to tell the difference between a Colt .45 and a .38 Special! And when they detect you with a firearm, their computers cross-reference the address to figure out your name, and then an enormous database housed at Berkeley is updated with information about you.
Of course, this all works fine during the day, but what about at night? Even the liberals can't control the rotation of the Earth to prevent nightfall from setting in (only Joshua was able to ask for that particular favor!) That's where the "moon" comes in. Powered by nuclear reactors, the "moon" is nothing more than an enormous balloon, emitting trillions of candlepower of gun-revealing light. Piloted by key members of the liberal community, the "moon" is strategically moved across the country, pointing out those who dare to make use of their God-given rights at night!
Yes, I know this probably sounds paranoid and preposterous, but consider this. Despite what the revisionist historians tell you, there is no mention of the "moon" anywhere in literature or historical documents -- anywhere -- before 1950. That is when it was initially launched. When President Josef Kennedy, at the State of the Union address, proclaimed "We choose to go to the moon", he may as well have said "We choose to go to the weather balloon." The subsequent faking of a "moon" landing on national TV was the first step in a long history of the erosion of our constitutional rights by leftists in this country. No longer can we hide from our government when the sun goes down..
"... but they should have employed Aryans for the actual calculations and stuff, as they usually do."
Aryans like you would have used a parachute for the landing, I'm sure.
... Aryans were a tribe in what became eastern Iran, but later became Afghanistan.
I know because the birth city of my dad was literally called Aryana way back in the days.
And my mome is as pure-blooded a German as you can get.
So no matter how you look at is, I might be the most Aryan person on the planet. ;)
And I don't look "like it" AT ALL!
(For some strange reason, nature thought it would be funny, to make me look like a Mexican-Brazilian who moved to Hawaii. I'm *both* too fair and too dark skinned, depending on the surroundings, but somehow magically never just normal.)
The spacecraft even took a picture of itself at an altitude of 13 miles with the moon in the background. Then, still high above the surface, the engine cut out.
Death by selfie.
Apollo 11 was essentially: Land ANYWHERE on the moon, grab some rocks, plant a flag and get home. As a result, the very flat (at least as seen by earlier probes) Mare Tranquillitatis was selected, and Neil Armstrong grabbed a few moon rocks and shoved them in his pocket nearly as soon as he got off the ladder (in case an emergency departure was needed) and the flag would tecnically be there even if a fabric one could not be planted since it was ethced into a plaque on a lander leg.
Apollo12 was essentially: Try a precision landing, spend a little longer on the surface planting a bunch of instruments and grabbing rocks and get home. An apparently smooth and empty spot was chosen next to the Surveyor 3 lander, then Pete and Al walked over to Surveyor and removed one of its cameras to bring it home (not only as proof, but for study of how equipment lasted in lunar surface conditions).
They surrendered in WW2, and we've everyone has been taunting them over it for the last seventy years. Mostly because they only held up for six weeks, at which point they realised that if they continued to fight they would suffer massive casualties and still lose. Instead of that, they decided to let the citizens of other countries die on their behalf. I'm going to keep taunting them for the next thirty. Maybe on the anniversary of their surrender I'll decide they've had enough.
does a Beresheet on the moon?
Eloi are stupid, throw morlocks at them!