Briefly

UNITED STATES

NASA loses contact with moon spacecraft

NASA said on Tuesday it has lost contact with a $32.7 million spacecraft headed to the moon to test out a lopsided lunar orbit, but agency engineers are hopeful they can fix the problem. After one successful communication and a second partial one on Monday, the space agency said it could no longer communicate with the spacecraft called Capstone. Engineers were trying to find the cause of the communications drop-off and are optimistic they can fix it, NASA spokesperson Sarah Frazier said on Tuesday. The spacecraft, which launched from New Zealand on June 28, had spent nearly a week in Earth orbit and had been successfully kick-started on its way to the moon when contact was lost.