ForumIAS announcing GS Foundation Program for UPSC CSE 2025-26 from 10th August. Click Here for more information.
- Beresheet, an Israeli spacecraft could not successfully soft land on the moon and crashed on the lunar surface.
- Beresheet was the first privately funded spacecraft which aimed to land on the moon. Only government space agencies from the former Soviet Union, the US and China have achieved soft lunar landings.
- If the landing had been successful, Israel would have become the fourth nation to soft land on moon after the former Soviet Union (Luna 2, 1959), the USA (Ranger 4, 1962) and China (Chang’e 4, 2018).
- Beresheet was flown by Space X’s falcon 9 Rocket. The spacecraft was built by Space IL (a non-profit organization in Israel) and Israel Aerospace Industry (IAI). The aim of Israel’s’ lunar mission was to take pictures and conduct experiments.
