*Source: DTN News / Int'l Media
(NSI News Source Info) NEW DELHI, India - August 31, 2009: The head of India's state-run space agency on Sunday hailed the country's first moon mission a success, despite losing contact with the spacecraft. 
Indian Space Research Organization scientists address a press conference after the successful launch of India's maiden lunar mission Chandrayaan-1, or "Moon Craft" in ancient Sanskrit, at the Satish Dhawan Space Center in Sriharikota, about 100 kilometers (63 miles) north of Chennai, India. India launched its first mission to the moon Wednesday, rocketing the satellite up into the pale dawn sky in a two-year mission to redraw maps of the lunar surface.
"The mission was a great success," G. Madhavan Nair, chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), told reporters in the state capital of Goa, Panaji, where a conference on low-budget space missions opens this week.
Nair, who said 95 percent of the Chandrayaan-I project's objectives had been completed, admitted scientists were disappointed with the development, but said a "large volume" of data was collected, including 70,000 images of the moon.
India launched the unmanned satellite and put a probe on the moon's surface to great fanfare and national pride late last year, propelling the country into the league of space-faring nations.
ISRO announced on Saturday that the 80-million-dollar project was over after losing radio contact with the satellite early on Friday, blaming a computer malfunction for cutting communications.
The satellite is now likely to crash onto the moon's surface.
The mission had been expected to last two years and was intended as a first step towards landing an unmanned moon rover by 2012. India also aims to launch satellites to study Mars and Venus as well as a manned space flight by 2020.
Nair told a news conference that a formal inquiry into what went wrong would be launched as a matter of course to learn lessons for future projects. 
In this Oct. 22, 2008 handout file photograph provided by the Indian Space Research Organization, India's maiden lunar mission Chandrayaan-1, or Moon Craft in ancient Sanskrit, is seen successfully taking off at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, about 100 kilometers (63 miles) north of Chennai, India. India became the fourth nation to mark its presence on the Moon after a Moon Impact Probe painted with the national tri-color successfully landed on the lunar surface after being detached from the unmanned spacecraft Chandrayaan-1, according to the Indian Space Research Organisation.
But he added: "We have found that all the instruments on the spacecraft worked satisfactorily and the entire scientific instruments have performed. That is how we could collect a large volume of data.
"We survived for 315 days, which is a good record. Many such experiments have burnt within a month in the past."
Indian Space Research Organization scientists address a press conference after the successful launch of India's maiden lunar mission Chandrayaan-1, or "Moon Craft" in ancient Sanskrit, at the Satish Dhawan Space Center in Sriharikota, about 100 kilometers (63 miles) north of Chennai, India. India launched its first mission to the moon Wednesday, rocketing the satellite up into the pale dawn sky in a two-year mission to redraw maps of the lunar surface.
"The mission was a great success," G. Madhavan Nair, chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), told reporters in the state capital of Goa, Panaji, where a conference on low-budget space missions opens this week.
Nair, who said 95 percent of the Chandrayaan-I project's objectives had been completed, admitted scientists were disappointed with the development, but said a "large volume" of data was collected, including 70,000 images of the moon.
India launched the unmanned satellite and put a probe on the moon's surface to great fanfare and national pride late last year, propelling the country into the league of space-faring nations.
ISRO announced on Saturday that the 80-million-dollar project was over after losing radio contact with the satellite early on Friday, blaming a computer malfunction for cutting communications.
The satellite is now likely to crash onto the moon's surface.
The mission had been expected to last two years and was intended as a first step towards landing an unmanned moon rover by 2012. India also aims to launch satellites to study Mars and Venus as well as a manned space flight by 2020.
Nair told a news conference that a formal inquiry into what went wrong would be launched as a matter of course to learn lessons for future projects. In this Oct. 22, 2008 handout file photograph provided by the Indian Space Research Organization, India's maiden lunar mission Chandrayaan-1, or Moon Craft in ancient Sanskrit, is seen successfully taking off at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, about 100 kilometers (63 miles) north of Chennai, India. India became the fourth nation to mark its presence on the Moon after a Moon Impact Probe painted with the national tri-color successfully landed on the lunar surface after being detached from the unmanned spacecraft Chandrayaan-1, according to the Indian Space Research Organisation.
But he added: "We have found that all the instruments on the spacecraft worked satisfactorily and the entire scientific instruments have performed. That is how we could collect a large volume of data.
"We survived for 315 days, which is a good record. Many such experiments have burnt within a month in the past."
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