Early days

On November 14, basking in the early glory of India’s maiden moon mission, after a moon impact probe (MIP) from the spacecraft Chandrayaan-1 launched on October 22, 2008 hit the lunar surface, Indian Space Research Organisation Chairman G. Madhavan Nair exclaimed: “India asked for the moon and we have given it.”

Back then, things were going like clockwork or “precise to the second” as the ISRO chairman described the flight of the MIP from Chandrayaan-1 to the surface of the moon. In those heady days of the mission, the only note of discord was struck by an unofficial report coming out of China, alleging a mismatch between the data on Chandrayaan’s orbit put out by ISRO and that analysed by private experts in China. No space agency whetted the Internet analysis and despite a few technical glitches causing concerns, till August 29 this year India’s maiden moon mission seemed like it could weather on to orbit the moon for a record 24 months—longer than the Chinese Chang’e 1 spacecraft’s 16-month spin that ended in March this year.

Abrupt end

When ISRO announced loss of all radio contact with Chandrayaan-1 on August 29 and then called off the mission a day later on August 30, scientists involved with the project admitted there was a tinge of disappointment, but in the overall analysis the maiden mission had thrown up more positives than failures, they said.

There were positives even to the early end to the mission. An anonymous commentator on the Internet wrote, “I am happy that the communications failed. When ISRO sends humans to space, communications should be fail proof.”

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