It is appropriate, on the first anniversary of the launch of India’s deep space mission Chandrayaan-I, to reflect on its achievements, failures and the Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) management of the dissemination of news on the progress of the mission.

Chandrayaan-I ended its operations prematurely, nearly 10 months before its scheduled termination. The loss of radio communication between the ISRO’s base stations and the Chandrayaan spacecraft marked this abrupt termination. ISRO blamed unanticipated solar radiation resulting in the “baking” of the many electronic devices on the spacecraft for the failure of the communication devices.