Scientists sped up things to get as much info out of Chandrayaan as possible before it conked out, says space agency official

All contact was lost with Chandrayaan I more than a year before it was supposed to happen, yet India's first lunar probe managed to deliver on 97 per cent of its moon mapping objectives all because, it has now come to light, space scientists discovered early on that there was a problem with the craft and decided to speed things up.

T K Alex, director, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Satellite Centres, said at the launch of a book on India's moon mission yesterday that they had realised soon after Chandrayaan I's launch that there were snags.

"Right at the beginning we realised we had a problem and had an idea this mission would not last too long," he said. "We decided to speed up work by taking pictures of the important areas of the moon as quickly as possible."

Chandrayaan raced against time to win