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Indian 1st Moon mission may end prematurely: ISRO

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-07-17 15:42

NEW DELHI: India may have to abandon its Moon mission midway, launched in October with a two-year shelf life, as its first indigenous lunar craft Chandrayaan-I lost a vital sensor which could lead to a premature end, the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) said Friday.

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"Unfortunately, during the last month we have lost a vital sensor - the star sensor. Like in the olden days when one used to look at the stars to fix a direction, likewise an onboard electronic equipment was doing all this and it was required for precise pointing to the moon. With its loss we are really worried, " ISRO chief G Madhavan Nair told the media.

However, he said that the problem could be overcome.

"ISRO scientific team has worked out a very innovative way of overcoming the problem. But, if some more failures happen, then we will have problems," the ISRO chief said, adding that the team has been able to collect almost all the data that it wanted.

Chandrayaan-I was launched from Sriharikota in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh on October 22 last year.