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It's been two weeks since Israel's first attempt at landing on the moon was disastrous at the last moment. The SpaceIL Beresheet lander crashed on the moon after what appeared to be some kind of engine failure in the last moments of the approach, but new information is appearing which suggests that the engine might have a good reason to stop.
A recent statement from SpaceIL provides a little more context for the unfortunate end of the mission, although many questions remain unresolved.
"According to a preliminary investigation into the landing maneuver of the Israeli shuttle Beresheet, it would appear that a manual control has been entered into the space shuttle computer," the statement said. "This resulted in a chain reaction in the spacecraft, during which the main engine went out, which prevented it from activating further."
During the live stream of the last descent of the spacecraft, everything seemed to be going well until the engine stopped. The SpaceIL engineers, very thoughtful, ordered the probe to restart the engine, which managed to get it off the ground, but the landing gear was already collapsing on the lunar surface and was not in able to recover.
The conclusion of Israel's first attempt to land a spacecraft on the moon was less than staggering, but SpaceIL is not setting. The company is already working on what it called "Beresheet 2.0" and intends to land successfully on a satellite on the Moon as soon as possible. The details of this mission and its possible launch date remain to be determined.
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