Spacewatch: India loses contact with communications satellite

GSAT 6A, primed for a 10-year mission showed no signs of malfunctioning before going silent

An Indian communications satellite has stopped talking to ground controllers. The spacecraft went silent so suddenly that an unnamed official was quoted by the Times of India as saying that it was like the satellite had suffered a "cardiac arrest."

Normally ground controllers see things start to go wrong before a spacecraft stops communicating. This time, however, according to the quoted official, there were no signs at all. This is making it difficult to diagnose the error and try to bring the spacecraft back online.