1 In the middle of the night, on February 22, 2019, many Israelis stayed awake to watch a rocket take off from Florida, in the United States. On board was a small spacecraft called Beresheet, the Hebrew word for “In the beginning,” the first word of the Bible. Its mission was to land on the Moon. If it succeeded, Israel would become only the fourth country in history to land a spacecraft on the Moon, after the Soviet Union, the United States and China.
2 The story of Beresheet began in 2011, when three young Israeli engineers decided to join an international competition. The competition offered a prize of millions of dollars to the first private team to land a spacecraft on the Moon. The engineers had a big dream but very little money, so they started a non-profit organization called SpaceIL and asked people and companies to help.
3 Building a spacecraft for the Moon usually costs hundreds of millions of dollars and needs thousands of workers. SpaceIL built Beresheet with a much smaller budget, about one hundred million dollars, and a small team of engineers and volunteers. The spacecraft was about the size of a washing machine, which made it one of the smallest spacecraft ever to try to land on the Moon.
4 Instead of flying straight to the Moon, Beresheet traveled around the Earth in bigger and bigger circles, using as little fuel as possible. The trip was long, but it was the only way to reach the Moon with such a small amount of fuel. After about six weeks, it entered orbit around the Moon. This alone was a historic moment: Israel became the seventh country to orbit the Moon.
5 On April 11, 2019, the team began the landing. In the control room in Yehud, everyone held their breath as the spacecraft came closer and closer to the surface. Then, when it was already very close to the Moon, a problem in one of its parts caused the main engine to shut down. The team tried to restart it, but it was too late. Beresheet crashed into the Moon.
6 The engineers were disappointed, but they were also proud. Their tiny spacecraft had traveled millions of kilometers, and it had shown the world what a small team with a big dream could do. Beresheet also carried a small time capsule with drawings by children, Israeli songs and a copy of the Bible. Just two days after the crash, SpaceIL announced that it would build a new spacecraft, Beresheet 2. Their message was simple: if you don't succeed the first time, try again.