Indian Space Research Organization Loses Communication With Satellite

The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) has lost communication with the country’s only satellite orbiting around the moon.  The ISRO can no longer control the satellite.  Contacts with the satellite ended around on Saturday.

The ISRO is no longer receiving any data from the satellite either.  The ISRO satellite has been in space for about 312 days and orbited the moon over 3,400 times.  Fortunately during that time, the ISRO completed the scientific objectives of the satellite.

The satellite was controlled by a monitoring center at Byalalu, a town about 20 miles from Bangalore.  Called Chandrayaan-1, the satellite was launched in October 2008.  This satellite put India in the same basket of countries that had moon missions such as USA, Russia, Japan, and China.

The satellite costed $80 million and has been having problems since May.  The satellite lost a star sensor and overheated since launch.  In 2011, the ISRO plans to land a rover on the moon.

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