India scraps first moon mission

India’s space agency has abandoned its inaugural Moon mission after losing communication with the orbiting Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft over the weekend, an official said today.

Agency spokesman S Satish said the agency’s efforts to revive the communication have not been successful.

Communications with the country’s only satellite orbiting the Moon disconnected on Saturday and scientists no longer controlled the spacecraft, which had completed 312 days in orbit, Mr Satish said.

The launch of Chandrayaan-1 in October last year put India in an elite club of countries with Moon missions, including the United States, Russia, the European Space Agency, Japan and China.