India loses contact with moon satellite

INDIA'S national space agency said communications with the country's only satellite orbiting the moon were lost yesterday and that its scientists were no longer controlling the spacecraft.

Radio contacts with Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft were lost abruptly at 9pm on Friday, the Indian Space Research Organisation said. The agency's monitoring unit near the southern city of Bangalore is no longer receiving data from the spacecraft, said spokesman S Satish.

The spacecraft had completed 312 days in orbit and orbited the moon more than 3,400 times.

"We are studying the telemetry data and trying to figure out what is the problem," said Satish. The space agency had received a large volume of data from the spacecraft – which is slotted in an automatic orbit of the moon – and most of the scientific objectives of the mission had been met, he said.

The spacecraft had been controlled from a monitoring centre at Byalalu, 18 miles south-west of Bangalore, sending it commands to change direction and speed and to focus the cameras.

The launch of Chandrayaan-1 in October 2008 put India in an elite club of countries with moon missions. Other countries with similar satellites are the United States, Russia, Japan, China and the countries that make up the European Space Agency.

The 50 million lunar spacecraft has experienced problems before. In May, the satellite lost a critical instrument called the star sensor. Two months later, it overheated but scientists were able to salvage the craft and resume normal operations.

The spacecraft had completed around 95 per cent of the two-year mission's objectives, according to Satish.

Scientists say the Chandrayaan project will boost India's capacity to build more efficient rockets and satellites, especially through miniaturisation, and open research avenues for young Indian scientists.

India plans to follow up the Chandrayaan project, which means "moon craft" in Sanskrit, by landing a rover on the moon in 2011.