Beresheet Reaches the Moon

Israel’s Beresheet spacecraft reached the Moon in 2019, becoming Israel’s first lunar mission and the first privately funded spacecraft to enter lunar orbit. Although the lander crashed during its April 11 landing attempt, the mission demonstrated that a relatively small nonprofit team could conduct an interplanetary mission at a fraction of the traditional cost. Beresheet became an important symbol of the growing role of private organizations and smaller nations in modern space exploration.