Plan to Put Texas Queso Recipe on Moon Crashes Along With Israeli Spacecraft

Whatever intelligent life is out there will have to survive without Texas queso a little longer.An Israeli spacecraft with the secret recipe for Austin's Kerbey Queso aboard has apparently crashed on the lunar surface, the city's KEYE-TV reported.The robotic craft, which launched via SpaceX Falcon rocket in February, was trying to make history as the first privately funded lunar mission but lost contact and crashed shortly before it was set to touch down.On board was a letter from Austin Mayor Steve Adler with the never-before-published recipe for the popular queso, among a vast archive of documents laser-etched into a radiation-proof disk that had been intended for the Lunar Library."We choose to send queso to the Moon - and maybe someday chips as well, not because these things are easy, but because they are hard," Adler told the newspaper in February, evoking JFK. "The challenge to eat queso in zero gravity is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one we intend to win, among other key challenges, like next time remembering the chips."Scientists had planned to use a lunar lander to place the disk, which included 25,000 books and an entire copy of Wikipedia, on the moon's surface."If at first you don't succeed, try, try again," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.Only the U.S., China and the former Soviet Union have achieved moon landings, according to the BBC, pegging the Israeli project's cost at about $100 million.The project was a joint effort between privately funded non-profit SpaceIL and Israel Aerospace Industries, the network said.  Continue reading...