Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), India's national space agency has confirmed that it has lost radio contact with the lunar craft Chandrayaan-1, bringing to a premature end to India's first mission to the moon.

The Indian Space research Organisation abruptly lost contact with the unmanned space craft at 0130 Saturday.

Chandrayaan-1 had faced problems earlier also. In May, it lost star sensor, a critical instrument. After some time, it overheated but at that time scientists were to resume it to normal operations.

The US$80 million lunar spacecraft was launched in October 2008, putting India in an elite club of nations with moon missions.

Chandrayaan-1, which was hoped to work till Nov. 2010, was on a mission to map a three dimensional atlas of the moon and researching chemical and mineral composition of its surface. 

However, ISRO said the recent development would not affect its plans to send a rover to the moon in 2011 and a manned mission to the moon by 2020.