Israeli spacecraft crashes on Moon
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The first privately funded mission to the Moon has crashed on the lunar surface after the apparent failure of its main engine.

The Israeli spacecraft - called Beresheet - attempted a soft landing, but suffered technical problems on its descent to the Moon's surface.

The aim of the mission was to take pictures and conduct experiments.

Only government space agencies from the former Soviet Union, the US and China have made successful moon landings.

"We didn't make it, but we definitely tried," said project originator and major backer Morris Kahn.

After seven weeks reaching the moon, the unmanned spacecraft approached a final orbit of the moon at 15km (9m) from the surface.

The mission has cost about $100m and has paved the way for future low-cost lunar exploration.

Dr Kimberly Cartier, an astronomer and science news reporter, tweeted that she was "sad about how #Beresheet ended" but "proud of the entire @TeamSpaceIL".

Beresheet, which is Hebrew for "in the beginning", was a joint project between SpaceIL, a privately funded Israeli non-profit organisation, and Israel Aerospace Industries.

Why did it take weeks for Beresheet to get to the Moon?

In space terms, the Moon is a mere hop from the Earth, and most missions take a few days to get there.

But the Beresheet mission, which launched on 22 February from Cape Canaveral in Florida, spent weeks reaching its destination.

The average distance to the Moon is 380,000km (240,000 miles) - Beresheet travelled more than 15 times that distance. And the main thing driving this was cost.

Instead of sitting alone on a rocket that would put it on the perfect trajectory to the Moon, it blasted off on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket along with a communications satellite and an experimental aircraft.

Sharing the ride into space significantly reduced its launch costs - but it meant the spacecraft had to take a more convoluted route.