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

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.