Indias Mars Orbiter "Attained End Of Life," Contact Is Lost
NDTV
Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said in a statement that, after an eclipse in April cut off sunlight to the probe, its "propellant must have been exhausted" and that it "attained its end-of-life".
India has lost contact with its Mars orbiter, eight years after the low-cost probe made it the first Asian nation with a spacecraft circling the red planet, its space agency said.
Although "designed for a life-span of six months as a technology demonstrator, the Mars Orbiter Mission has lived for about eight years in the Martian orbit with a gamut of significant scientific results", the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said Monday.
The agency said in a statement that, after an eclipse in April cut off sunlight to the probe, its "propellant must have been exhausted" and that it "attained its end-of-life".
Launched in 2013 before entering Mars's orbit the following year, the probe made India one of only a handful of nations to circle the Red Planet, including Russia and the United States, as well as the European Union.
