Its aims included inspiring youth and promoting careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), and landing its magnetometer, time capsule, and laser retroreflector on the Moon.

[21] The spacecraft carried a "time capsule" containing over 30 million pages of data, including a full copy of the English-language Wikipedia, the Wearable Rosetta disc, the PanLex database, the Torah, children's drawings, a children's book inspired by the space launch, memoirs of a Holocaust survivor, Israel's national anthem ("Hatikvah"), the Israeli flag, and a copy of the Israeli Declaration of Independence.

[29][30] In October 2015, SpaceIL signed a contract for a launch from Cape Canaveral in Florida on a SpaceX Falcon 9 booster, via Spaceflight Industries.

[38] Beresheet was planned to operate for an estimated two days on the lunar surface,[20] as it had no thermal control and was expected to quickly overheat.

The engine was brought back online following a system-wide reset; however, the craft had already lost too much altitude to slow its descent sufficiently.

The final telemetry reading indicated that at an altitude of 150 m (490 ft) the craft was still traveling at over 500 km/h (310 mph; 140 m/s), resulting in a total loss on impact with the lunar surface.

Since the engine was needed to be continuously firing during the descent to decelerate Beresheet, the spacecraft retained excessive speed and struck the lunar surface at 3,000 km/h (1,900 mph; 830 m/s).

[50] NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) overflew the area where Beresheet's telemetry ended, and took photos of the surface.

[52] In August 2019, scientists reported that a capsule containing tardigrade micro-animals in their natural cryptobiotic state may have survived the crash and lived on the Moon for a while.

[55] In May 2021, a team of researchers led by Alejandra Traspas, a student at Queen Mary University of London, claimed that the tardigrades were most likely destroyed by the force of the crash.

[21][3] However, on 13 April 2019, Morris Kahn announced that a new mission, named Beresheet 2 would attempt a second time to land on the Moon.

It will have a budget of US$100 million, similar to that of Beresheet 1, and will include more international collaboration, with the United Arab Emirates as one of seven countries expressing interest.

[62] On 9 June 2019, it was announced that IAI signed an agreement with the American company Firefly Aerospace to build a lunar lander based on Beresheet.

[65] Due to changing CLPS specifications, Firefly determined that Genesis no longer fit NASA's requirements and started work on a new lunar lander design called Blue Ghost in 2021.

[66] On 4 February 2021, NASA awarded a CLPS contract worth approximately US$93.3 million to Firefly Aerospace to deliver a suite of 10 science investigations and technology demonstrations to the Moon in 2023.