Polar satellite will fly again
24 February 2006
An environmental satellite which was destroyed last October will be rebuilt and launched in 2009, the European Space Agency (ESA) announced in Paris today.
CryoSat, a satellite designed to monitor Earth's shrinking ice caps in unprecedented detail, plummeted out of the sky into the Arctic Ocean shortly after lift-off when the rocket containing the satellite malfunctioned. The second stage of the rocket failed to separate from the final stage containing the satellite dragging it into the ocean north of Greenland.
Photograph: Artist's impression of CryoSat monitoring the polar ice.
The satellite loss brought home the value of this mission to the climate change scientific community who have rallied around the scientists involved and successfully persuaded the space agency's Earth Observation Programme Board to invest in a second mission.
This decision is a great relief to the director of NERC's Centre for Polar Observation and Modelling, Duncan Wingham, who proposed the mission in 1999.
"Losing CryoSat-1 after only four minutes was quite a blow, so obviously we are delighted to have our mission back. It has been very heartening to see the very strong support for CryoSat-2 from all sections of the scientific and funding communities, and from the space agency. I am sure this reflects the widespread recognition of the importance of Arctic climate change to all of us in Europe."
"CryoSat-2 will provide us with detailed and clear knowledge of these widespread changes, albeit a little later than we had first planned," he added.
A preliminary report puts the cost of rebuilding CryoSat at €106·4m (£73·5m). The original cost of the mission was €140m (£95m) but savings can be made by using existing infrastructure on the ground designed for data processing and satellite operations for other Earth Explorer missions.
At the last Earth Observation Programme Board meeting in November the board released some funds to investigate the possibility of a second mission, CryoSat-2, subject to a full costing proposal. The proposal was accepted today.
Further information
NERC Press Office
Natural Environment Research Council
Polaris House, North Star Avenue
Swindon, SN2 1EU
Tel: 01793 411561
Mob: 07917 557215
Press release: 11/06
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