NATIONWIDE — An Israeli spacecraft that launched in February from Florida's Space Coast failed to successfully land on the moon, the company behind the mission said Thursday.

The Israeli nonprofit SpaceIL was hoping to become the first privately-funded mission to reach the lunar surface.

The spacecraft was named Beresheet, which is Hebrew for "in the beginning," or Genesis.

"We've had a failure with the spacecraft. We unfortunately have not managed to land successfully," SpaceIL officials said Thursday afternoon.

It's unclear what happened to Beresheet after conducting its last maneuver Wednesday to lower it closer to the lunar surface.

It was supposed to spend just 72 hours on the moon, investigating its magnetic field.

Israel would have joined the U.S., Russia, and China as the only nations to land on the moon.

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