Israel's attempt to land on moon: Envoy says 'proud moment' as only superpowers achieved the feat

Unfazed by the crash landing of Beresheet spacecraft on the moon, Israeli envoy to India Ron Malka Friday said despite the setback, it is a "proud moment" that a small country like Israel could land on the moon, a feat achieved only by superpowers.

"We may have crash landed, but we landed. Success is a process and failure is just a part of the process. So we must not be scared of dreaming," Malka said at an event held at the embassy here to celebrate the development.

Israeli spacecraft, Beresheet, lost contact with the Earth and crashed just moments before it was to land on the moon, failing in an ambitious attempt to make history as the first privately-funded lunar mission.

The spacecraft lost communication with ground control late Thursday as it was making its final descent to the moon. Moments later, the mission was declared a failure.

In Israel's Yehud city, Opher Doron, general manager of the space division of Israel Aerospace Industries, said, "We definitely crashed on surface of the moon."