SpaceIL operated the first private mission to place a spacecraft into lunar orbit with its Beresheet lander.
Beresheet entered lunar orbit on April 4, 2019, after launching aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 in February. The Israeli nonprofit SpaceIL developed the spacecraft with Israel Aerospace Industries, making the mission a major privately funded lunar effort.
Beresheet was intended to land on the Moon, but a failure in its main engine during the landing sequence caused the spacecraft to crash on April 11, 2019. Its successful arrival in lunar orbit nevertheless marked a significant achievement for a privately developed lunar probe.
The mission is often confused with later commercial lunar-landing successes. Beresheet did not complete a soft landing, while Intuitive Machines’ Odysseus and other spacecraft achieved later milestones. The question concerns lunar orbit, not landing.