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2019-04-11, 07:57 PM (ISO 8601)
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#1
Barbarian in the Playground
Israeli Moon Landing... aaaaand it's gone
Israel tried this morning to be the fourth country in history to land on the moon, and the first with a privately funded moon lander.... but the lander glitched out during the landing phase, and is believed lost.
https://spaceflightnow.com/2019/04/1...d-moon-lander/
Initial reports are pretty confused. Some reports say a problem with the IMU (Inertial Measurement Unit -- a super-sensitive accelerometer, basically, which lets the craft figure out where it is & where it's going); some reports say a problem with the main engine. There was also a telemetry glitch which might indicate a computer problem. But regardless, it's pretty clear it failed to finish the landing burn and came in far too fast to survive.
Space is hard