The much followed Moon Mission of India,Chandrayaan-I  lost radio contact with the centre controlling the satellite at Bangalore. The mission was notable as in most space missions of India, for its cost efficiency. The launched cost less than the launches of both China and Japan; the mission was expected to cost 3.8bn rupees (£45m; $78m),

The unmanned craft was launched last October in what was billed as a two-year mission of exploration. The launch was regarded as a major step for India as it seeks to keep pace with other space-faring nations in Asia. Following its launch from the southern state of Andhra Pradesh, it was hoped the robotic probe would orbit the Moon, compile a 3-D atlas of the lunar surface and map the distribution of elements and minerals.

Another concern arising is that the project was not covered under any insurance as Chandrayaan-1 was a scientific project.

“We have not taken any cover for this project,” S Satish, spokesperson of ISRO said.

The Made-in-India rocket bearing the lunar spacecraftl lifted off as per schedule, in a clockwork manner. The 1.5-ton Chandrayaan spacecraft took approximately eight days to travel about 240,000 miles before reaching its final orbit 60 miles above the surface of the moon. A crash landing of a lunar vehicle on the moon’s surface was also planned.

According to insurance officials the cost of insuring space launches is extremely high due to high rate of failure. Because of the high rate of failure the premium rates vary between 25-33% of the sum insured. ISRO brlieving in its good track record of launches opted for self-insurance.

Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft, launched by homegrown PSLV-C11 from Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota, has completed 312 days in orbit, making more than 3,400 orbits around the moon. It has provided large volume of data from sophisticated sensors such as terrain mapping camera, hyper-spectral imager and moon mineralogy mapper, meeting most of the scientific objectives of the mission.

ISRO said last month Chandrayaan-1 had sent more than 70,000 images of the lunar surface which provide breathtaking views of lunar mountains and craters, especially craters in the permanently shadowed areas of the Moon’s polar region.

Chandrayaan-1 was also collecting valuable data pertaining to the chemical and mineral content of the Moon, ISRO said on July 17.

Significantly, on August 21, ISRO and NASA performed a unique joint experiment that the Indian space agency said could yield additional information on the possibility of existence of ice in a permanently shadowed crater near the North Pole of the moon.

The end to the Chandrayaan-1 mission comes just over four months after the onboard star sensor for determining the orientation of the spacecraft started malfunctioning on April 26, and one of the bus management units failed.”

Although, history suggests that a satellite running out of orbit is seldom brought under control again, the ISRO chairman G Madhavan Nair said thery are still trying to ascertain the reason for the incident. He is also said to have said that thre is still and outstandin hope to regain control over the spacecraft.