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.

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