UK firm down to earth with a bump as Moon landing fails
BRITAIN experienced a fresh space setback after it emerged the engine of Israel’s crashed Moon lander, which was made by a Buckinghamshire company, was at the centre of inquiries.
The world’s first private mission to the lunar surface ended in a crash on Thursday night after the Beresheet failed to slow down. Its Leros engine, which should have brought the craft to a gentle landing, was built by Nammo, in Westcott, Bucks. Although the Leros has powered missions such as Juno and the Mars Global Surveyor, it had not before been used for a soft landing.
Nammo stated: “After more than six weeks in space where the engine had brought Beresheet safely to the Moon, something caused it to stop during final descent. We hope Spaceil is able to make a conclusion on what happened and we look forward to their report.”
Britain’s track record in soft landings suffered a blow in 2003 when the Beagle 2 mission crashed on Mars and failed to make contact with Earth.
There are also fears that the Britishbuilt Exomars rover will struggle to land on Mars after the test flight crashed on the Red Planet in 2016.
As engineers watched a feed of the latest mission, the engine was seen misfiring and the velocity surging as Beresheet neared the lunar surface.
Opher Doron, of Israel Aerospace Industries, said scientists are trying to understand why it failed. And although Beresheet debris was scattered over the landing site, the mission had been an “amazing success” for reaching the Moon and coming so close to landing.
“If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again,” said Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister. It would have been the first private mission to reach the lunar surface, ushering in an era of commercial space travel.