Last week, Israel launched the first privately funded mission to the moon with SpaceIL’s Beresheet (Hebrew for “In the beginning”) spacecraft. In the midst of its lunar voyage, the spacecraft has met a technical hiccup, according to the Associated Press (AP).
SpaceIL engineers announced Tuesday, February 26, that the onboard computer system reset itself unexpectedly, the AP reports. The reset subsequently aborted a maneuver that’s needed for Beresheet to meet its scheduled April landing.
During its journey, Beresheet will have to circle the Earth multiple times and slingshot its way to the moon, traveling approximately 4 million mi when it’s all said and done, according to CNN. If all goes well, Israel will become the fourth country to successfully land on the moon, following Russia, the U.S., and China.
Israel’s spacecraft wasn’t the only one to suffer technical issues this week. NASA’s Curiosity rover encountered a problem during boot-up, stalling its plans and sending it into a protective safe mode. Although the team is still trying to figure out the cause of the one-time computer reset, Curiosity soon resumed normal operations on Mars.
Filed Under: Aerospace + defense