NASA has found India’s lost Chandrayaan-1; it is orbiting the moon

A year after its launch, the orbiter started suffering from several technical issues, and ISRO had declared the mission over

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration has found India's first Lunar probe, the Chandrayaan-1, which is now orbiting the moon. The spacecraft was considered lost when Indian Space Research Organisation lost communication with it in 2009. The space agency has found its own, still-active Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.

Chandrayaan-1 is most noted for finding water particles on the moon, and the mission was a major boost to the Indian space program when it was launched on November 14, 2008.

After almost a year, the orbiter started suffering from several technical issues including failure of the star sensors and poor thermal shielding, the craft stopped sending radio signals at 01:30 (IST) on August 29, 2009. Shortly after that, the ISRO officially declared the mission over.

Not an easy task

"We have been able to detect NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and ISRO's Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft in lunar orbit with ground-based radar," said Marina Brozovic, a radar scientist at JPL and principal investigator for the test project.

But the scientist added that finding the Chandrayaan-1 required a bit more 'detective' work since it lost contact in 2009 and the fact that it is the size of a small car.