A spacecraft carrying a repository of human knowledge has crashed into the Moon.

The Israeli spacecraft Beresheet slammed into the Moon over the weekend after a series of technical failures during its final descent.

The unmanned robotic lander was plagued with a string of engine and communication failures during the 21-minute landing sequence.

Viewing centres across Israel showed scientists visibly distraught.

“We definitely crashed on surface of Moon,” said the general manager of the space division of Israel Aerospace Industries, Opher Doron.

“One of the inertial measurement units failed. And that caused an unfortunate chain of events we're not sure about.

“The engine was turned off. The engine was stopped and the spacecraft crashed. That's all we know.”

The Beresheet was carrying a 30-million-page archive of human civilisation encoded on a medium designed to last billions of years.

The spacecraft is now scattered in pieces scattered across the intended landing site.

Beresheet had intended to make a fairly unusual trip to the moon – catching a lift on the back of a SpaceX Falcon rocket launched in February, travelling for seven weeks in a series of expanding orbits around Earth before crossing into the Moon's gravity last week.

The 6.5-million kilometre voyage was designed to conserve fuel and reduce the price of lunar voyages.

“If at first you don't succeed, try, try again,” Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.