Posted on behalf of K.S. Jayaraman

India’s planned 2-year moon mission, launched last year, ended 14 months prematurely today. Scientists at the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) have abruptly lost radio contact with the lunar orbiter Chandrayaan-1.

ISRO spokesman S. Satish said that attempts to re-establish contact had failed and that the spacecraft may crash any time on the lunar surface. The end of India’s first lunar mission comes four months after the onboard device for determining the orientation of the spacecraft started malfunctioning on 26 April.

An ISRO release said that the spacecraft had made more than 3,400 orbits around the moon, sent more than 70,000 images, and had met most of the scientific objectives of the mission.