Aug 31 2009
From The Space Library
ISRO ended its US$82 million Chandrayaan mission after failing to restore communication with the craft. ISRO had lost contact with Chandrayaan 1 on 29 August. Chandrayaan 1, known as Moon Craft, had launched on 22 October 2008 on a mission to map the lunar terrain in preparation for a future mission that would land a rover on the Moon’s surface. ISRO had designed the craft to orbit the Moon for two years, at an altitude of 100 kilometers (62 miles). Chandrayaan 1 carried 11 payloads, including an Indian-designed terrain-mapping camera, ESA mapping instruments, radiation-measuring equipment belonging to the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, and two NASA devices designed to assess mineral composition and to look for ice deposits. ISRO Chief Madhavan Nair reportedly told the state-run broadcaster Doordarshan that a malfunction in computers on board the craft had led to the failure in communications. Nair also stated that a committee of scientists would investigate the incident.
Ed Johnson, “India Ends Lunar Mission After Losing Probe Signal,” Bloomberg News, 31 August 2009; Associated Press, “Indian Moon Orbiter Loses Contact,” 29 August 2009.
NASA astronauts Michael R. Barratt and Kevin A. Ford used a robotic arm to remove the 13.5- ton (12.3-tonne, or 12,247-kilogram) Leonardo cargo module from Space Shuttle Discovery’s cargo bay. An hour later, the astronauts had successfully attached the module to the Harmony module’s Earth-facing port and had begun the process of checking for leaks and pressurizing a vestibule between Harmony and the cargo module.
William Harwood, “Cargo Module Mounted to Space Station for Unloading,” Spaceflight Now, 1 September 2009.
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