Just over five years ago, on 22 February 2019, an unmanned space probe was placed in orbit around the Moon. Named Beresheet and built by SpaceIL and Israel Aerospace Industries, it was intended to be the first private spacecraft to perform a soft landing.
On the way to the Moon, the spacecraft had been traveling at high speed, and it needed to be slowed way down to make a soft landing. Unfortunately, during the braking maneuver, a gyroscope failed, blocking the primary engine. At an altitude of 150 m, Beresheet was still moving at 500 km/h, far too fast to be stopped in time. The impact was violent - the probe shattered, and its remains were scattered over a distance of around a hundred meters.
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