By Ruth Eglash
People in Netanya, Israel, watch the live
broadcast of the SpaceIL spacecraft as it loses contact with Earth on
Thursday. (Ariel Schalit/AP)
JERUSALEM —
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,” Opher Doron, general manager
of Israel Aerospace Industries, which assisted in building the vessel,
informed a crowd of onlookers, including Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu.
The newly reelected 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 properly.
“We’ve reached the moon, but we want to land more
comfortably, and there will be another attempt. The very experience is a
tremendous achievement, and we will become the fourth country to land
on the moon if we persevere,” he said. “As far as I’m concerned, the
eagle has landed, the state of Israel is taking off — next time even
better.”
Earlier he had said that for the
unmanned spacecraft, named Beresheet, the Hebrew word for Genesis, the
first book of the Bible, to make such a journey “was a great step for
mankind and a huge leap for Israel.”
Morris
Kahn, president of SpaceIL, which spearheaded the complicated and
ambitious project, said: “Israel made it to the moon. Beresheet’s
journey hasn’t ended. I expect Israel’s next generation to complete the
mission for us.”
The $100 million initiative was
almost entirely funded by Jewish donors and foundations from around the
world, though some government agencies offered support. Kahn, a South
African-born millionaire, “gifted” the project to Israel and declared it
a national project. He said he was hopeful that the initiative would
contribute significantly to future space exploration and also to inspire
a new generation of Israeli children to embrace science and realize
that anything is possible.
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