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Israeli Beresheet: Moon lander's lunar crash

A photograph of the Moon's surface showing craters reaching for miles, taken by the Beresheet Lander before it crashedIsrael Aerospace Industries HANDOUT

Israel's first attempt to land a spacecraft on the Moon has ended with disaster.

The Beresheet Lander suffered engine failure at the last minute and crashed into the Moon.

At the moment it's not clear exactly what caused the Beresheet's engines to fail.

It isn't all bad news though because getting a craft the 384,400 km to the Moon is a huge achievement.

But don't think that Beresheet is the first probe to crash either, many lunar probes have crashed into the Moon's surface, sometimes even on purpose.

A photograph of the Nasa ranger 4 lunar probe against the black background of spaceNASA

The ranger 4 may have crashed but reaching the Moon still completed its mission to photograph the Moon

Nasa's Ranger 4 satellite was designed to crash into the Moon after taking photographs of our rocky neighbour.

And it did, on April 26, 1962, becoming the first American spacecraft to reach another world.

Only seven countries in history have managed to put a probe into the Moon's gravity, Israel being the latest.

During the mission, Israel also became the fifth country ever to send a robot to the Moon's surface, even if it wasn't exactly the graceful landing they had hoped for.

A photographer of the Moon's crater scarred surface, taken by the Beresheet Lander before it crashed into the Moon's surfaceSpaceIL

Even though Beresheet didn't quite go to plan, spirits are high with the SpaceIL team

Beresheet was thought up and built by SpaceIL, a not-for-profit organisation, but they had some help and funding from the Israeli Space Agency and some generous donors.

The first and last time someone walked on the moon was in 1969, when American's Buzz Auldrin and Neil Armstrong stepped on to the rocky surface.

But the USA has plans to send more astronauts to the Moon's surface by 2024.

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