Mission Summary
Beresheet was Israel’s first mission to the Moon and the first attempt by a privately funded organization to land there. Built by the nonprofit SpaceIL and Israel Aerospace Industries, the small lander launched on February 22, 2019 as a rideshare payload, taking a long, looping, fuel-saving path to the Moon.
After several weeks it entered lunar orbit and, on April 11, 2019, began its descent toward Mare Serenitatis. In the final minutes a malfunction led the main engine to cut out, and the spacecraft struck the surface in a hard landing, ending the mission just short of its goal.
Though it did not survive, Beresheet came remarkably close for a low-cost private effort and made Israel one of the few nations to reach lunar orbit. It carried a NASA laser retroreflector as a passenger, and NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter later photographed the impact site. SpaceIL announced afterward that it would try again with a successor mission.
Sources and notes can be found on the Sources page.
