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Israel's SpaceIL almost made history today as its Beresheet spacecraft came within an ace of landing on the surface of the Moon, but suffered a last minute failure during descent. Israel missed out on the chance to be the fourth country to make a controlled lunar landing, but getting 99 percent of the way there is still an extraordinary achievement for private spaceflight.
Beresheet ("Genesis") launched in February as secondary payload aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, and after a month and a half spiralling outward, entered lunar orbit a week ago.
Today's final manoeuvre was an engine burn meant to bring down its relative velocity to the Moon, then brake to a soft landing in the Mare Serenitatis, or Sea of Serenity.
Everything was working fine up until the final moments, as is often the case in space. The craft, having made it perfectly to its intended point of descent, determined that all systems were ready and the landing process would go ahead as planned.
They lost telemetry for a bit, and had to reset the craft to get the main engine back online... and then communication dropped while only a handful of kilometres from the surface. The "selfie" image above was taken just a few minutes before they lost communication. The spacecraft was announced as lost shortly afterwards.
Clearly disappointed but also exhilarated, the team quickly recovered its composure, saying "the achievement of getting to where we got is tremendous and we can be proud," and of course, "if at first you don't succeed... try, try again, at least that's what Theresa May has told us."
Beresheet ("Genesis") launched in February as secondary payload aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, and after a month and a half spiralling outward, entered lunar orbit a week ago.
Today's final manoeuvre was an engine burn meant to bring down its relative velocity to the Moon, then brake to a soft landing in the Mare Serenitatis, or Sea of Serenity.
Everything was working fine up until the final moments, as is often the case in space. The craft, having made it perfectly to its intended point of descent, determined that all systems were ready and the landing process would go ahead as planned.
They lost telemetry for a bit, and had to reset the craft to get the main engine back online... and then communication dropped while only a handful of kilometres from the surface. The "selfie" image above was taken just a few minutes before they lost communication. The spacecraft was announced as lost shortly afterwards.
Clearly disappointed but also exhilarated, the team quickly recovered its composure, saying "the achievement of getting to where we got is tremendous and we can be proud," and of course, "if at first you don't succeed... try, try again, at least that's what Theresa May has told us."
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Meanwhile NASA watches on as Manned Moon Landings has always set them an imponderable puzzle which white world science has been unable to piece together !!! BOOM BOOM.
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BREAKING NEWS......THE MOON IS ANTISEMETIC
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You must be having a quiet day Tel
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Yes poor taste Pumps
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It would be so much easier to land it if there were people on board...
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If they ever fire their Nuclear missiles, **** knows where they will land.
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What! they say they haven't any
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They have never officially confirmed or denied.
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Nick,of course they have them
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Yes, I agree. I was responding to your comment that they deny having them.
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Had me chuckling Terry. Very funny.
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Are you confirming they denied it, or that they denied they confirmed it or are denying they neither confirmed or denied it ?
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Surely confirmed they neither confirmed or denied it.
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What, your confirming it ?
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I thought you were speaking to Nick.
I was merely implying that you had incorrectly used denying when it should have been confirmed. I'm almost sure I'm right but can neither confirm or deny it. |
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Sat pics tell us they have them,but silly to believe they wouldn't have them though
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Sat pics tell us they have them,but silly to believe they wouldn't have them though
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https://i.guim.co.uk/img/static/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/audio/video/2012/9/28/1348817110763/Israeli-PM-Binyamin-Netan-015.jpg?width=640&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=f9dd756c4a2ffa9fe69bb77c0ef73989
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Nuclear weapons freely available at Aldi and Lidl
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Correct Tel, they obviously have them for good reason, like the UK have them for the same reason, deterrent is a great tool for the non use of them & hopefully will continue to be for the foreseeable.
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Indeed. However, Israel has never conducted a nuclear weapons test.
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Maybe they know already that they work.
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Yes I agree Pumps,just odd that they wont disclose one way or the other when its easy to see,Iran also have the right to have them for protection purposes.
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Only difference between Iran & Israel is Iran threatens to use them against Israel, Israel have only said they would retaliate, they have never threatened to use them, as Israel is at the forefront of world tech, I can safely say they would probably work !
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Did they? Israel seem to have the lead with everything including the USA
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Israel already have a secret colony/settlement on Mars.
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Are you trying to say they have there is proof they have put a menorah on the moon?
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I am not sure how you interpret " to annihilate Israel " but I suspect Israel views this as a threat to use nuclear weapons to achieve that.
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Next mission is to put the Jew in Jewpiter.
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Dunno Pumps but Iran will be the next "big thing"
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Not so sure this crafts mission is being correctly reported .It was susposedly an autonomous craft ,apparently it travelled further than any other craft to get to the moon as it’s MO was slingshot ,it was little bigger than a washing machine machine/fridge freezer and it’s weight was very low ,500kg at take off and about 150kg upon descent ,was launched by space x (sir Ellon of Tesla ) along with three other crafts/satellites . I am looking to see just how close it got to it’s intended Landing site and exactly what did occur but being of very questioning nature and even if I am pro Israel I think the reason it crashed might be something far simpler than s tech fail or comms issue ,it’s mission was to soft land and collect some data before being rapidly destroyed by heat and cold . So OP suggesting comms issue was cause of failure am not so sure about ,craft was supposed to land itself ,perhaps other probs en route had used up all the juice ? Anyway brilliant effort and next craft will be a success imo .A very very good mission and at the money spent (again if correct ) is outstanding . Well done Israel .
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