NASA spots lunar lander’s crash site

A NASA spacecraft in orbit around the Moon spotted the crash site of an Israeli robotic lander named Beresheet, which slammed into the lunar surface during a botched landing attempt in April. New pictures from the spacecraft show that the lander left a dark, 10-meter-long smudge across the Moon where it hit and then disintegrated.

The ill-fated lander was the creation of an Israeli non-profit called SpaceIL, which launched Beresheet on top of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket in February. Before the crash, the lander was poised to make history by becoming the first spacecraft made with mostly private funding to touch down on the surface of the Moon.

But during its landing attempt, someone or something inputted a command into the lander’s computer, starting a chain reaction that ended with the spacecraft’s main engine shutting down too early. As a result, the lander couldn’t slow down enough during its descent to the surface. The vehicle came in way too fast and broke apart on impact. Just before it crashed, it sent back one final image of the lunar surface.