Chandrayaan-1: ISRO loses contact, claims mission 'OVER'

India’s first mission to the moon, Chandrayaan-1 appeared to be virtually over on Saturday after Indian space agency, ISRO's ground station lost communication link with the spacecraft. "The contact was lost at 01:30 hrs as the deep space network (DSN) at Byalalu, about 40 km from Bangalore, received the data from the lunarcraft during the previous orbit up to 00:25 hrs," an Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) statement stated. "The mission is definitely over. We have lost contact with the spacecraft," Project Director of the Chandrayaan-1 mission M Annadurai told a news agency. However, he said: "It (Chandrayaan-1) has done its job technically...100 per cent. Scientifically also, it has done almost 90-95 percent of its job".
ISRO officials said the agency does not have "much hope" on the mission’s continuation. ISRO is neither able to receive data from Chandrayaan-1, nor send commands to the moon craft, officials added. "We are not able to establish contact with the spacecraft. We are not getting the data. We are not able to send commands," an ISRO official said here.