CryoSat lost due to launch failure
On the evening of 8 October, the European Space Agency (ESA) officially confirmed that the launch of CryoSat had ended in a failure. According to the Russian authorities, the failure was due to an anomaly in the launch sequence. Preliminary analysis indicates that the first stage performed nominally; the satellite blasted off as foreseen from Russia's Plesetsk Cosmodrome aboard a modified Russian intercontinental ballistic missile, called Rockot. But later on, around the time it should have shot into final orbit, ground controllers could not establish contact with the satellite in its intended orbit. ESA's officials explained: the second stage performed nominally until the main engine cut-off was to occur. Due to a missing command from the onboard flight control system, the main engine continued to operate until depletion of the remaining fuel. As a consequence, the separation of the second stage from the upper stage did not occur. Thus, the combined stack of the two stages and the CryoSat satellite fell into high seas close to the North Pole - the nominal drop zone - with no consequences to populated areas. An investigating commission by the Russian State authorities has been established to further analyse the reasons for the failure. Results are expected within a few weeks. CryoSat would have been the first in a series of six ESA 'Earth Explorer' satellites, designed for small research missions to explore key environmental problems as part of ESA's Living Planet Programme. ESA must now make a decision on the future of these missions. Cryosat was developed in just six years, from the proposal idea to a full satellite mission about to be launched. Dedicated to monitoring precise changes in the thickness of the polar ice sheets and floating sea ice, the observations made over the three-year lifetime of the mission were expected to provide conclusive evidence of rates at which ice cover may be diminishing as a result of global warming. Previous satellites could only assess sea ice. The concept behind the CryoSat mission - which was approved in 1999 - is to respond to the current debate on global warming and the effect that this may be having on Earth's polar masses.