ESA Satellite Fails, Falls into Ocean
Posted on: Saturday, 8 October 2005, 21:00 CDT
The European Space Agency confirmed Saturday its satellite launch of the CryoSat fell into the Arctic Ocean minutes after takeoff.
The $158 million satellite had taken off from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northern Russia. ESA space officials said the flight broke up and crashed into the sea, reported the BBC.
It is a very sad event for many scientists around Europe and also for the teams involved in industry which built the satellite, said Duncan Wingham, CryoSat chief scientist.
The satellite carried a sophisticated radar altimeter that was to measure the height and angle of Earth's glacial ice surfaces with unprecedented precision.
The satellite's unique radar altimeter was to see ice masses at vastly improved resolutions, to help determine if the apparent ice cover changes seen today are due to ice melting due to global warning or to changes in the winds that shift the ice around.
Source: United Press International
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