Israel has every right to be disappointed by the sad loss of its probe. But all of humanity should be hopeful for what’s coming next
In astronomical terms, 11 kilometres isn’t very far. On Thursday, though, it proved insurmountable for Israel’s Beresheet probe. The unmanned lunar exploration vehicle had been travelling slowly to the moon since it was launched in late February, and was attempting to land on the surface. If the landing attempt had been successful, Israel would have become only the fourth country to successfully land a probe on the moon, along with the United States, the Soviet Union and China.
The failure was heartbreaking for Israel’s space agency, of course, but it should take pride in what it did accomplish. The United States and the Soviet Union made something of a habit of crashing lunar probes during the early years of the space race, and even though those countries now have two generations of space flight experience, landing a probe on a distant planetary body remains incredibly challenging. For Israel to come so close in its first attempt is incredible.
Meanwhile, in Florida, SpaceX, the private space flight company owned by Elon Musk, also pulled off a remarkable feat. The company had a successful launch of its Falcon Heavy rocket . This was the second successful flight of the Falcon Heavy — the first, a test flight, hurled a Tesla roadster out into the solar system. This time, the launch was for a paying customer, and a satellite has successfully been inserted into Earth’s orbit.
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