india abandons satellite (Moon Mission) after losing contact

[LRE]

NEW DELHI: India’s space agency has abandoned the country’s only satellite orbiting the moon after efforts to revive communication with it failed, an official said on Monday.

Communications with the Chandrayaan-1 satellite, which has been orbiting the moon for nearly a year, snapped on Saturday and scientists lost control of the satellite. The space agency’s efforts to restore contact since then have failed, agency spokesman S Satish told The Associated Press. “The mission has been terminated,” Satish quoted G Madhavan Nair, chief of the Indian Space Research Organisation, as saying on Sunday. The space agency said it is investigating the communications failure.

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, the European Space Agency, Japan and China. The agency plans to hold talks with the US and Russian space agencies to track the satellite, which is now orbiting 125 miles (200 kilometres) from the surface of the moon, Satish said on Monday. ap

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