MashGet

NEW DELHI, India (CNN) -- Scientists have switched off several on-board instruments to halt rising temperatures inside India's first unmanned lunar spacecraft.

Mylswamy Annadurai, the project director for the lunar mission, told CNN that temperatures onboard Chandrayaan-1 had risen to 49 degrees Celsius (120 degrees Fahrenheit).

The increase occurred as the craft, the moon -- which it is orbiting -- and the sun lined up, a phenomenon which Annadurai said was not unexpected and which would likely last until the end of December.