Europe ice satellite feared lost

[muriel_volestrangler]

Mission control is growing increasingly concerned about the fate of Europe's ice monitoring spacecraft, Cryosat.

The £90m (135m euro) satellite was launched at 1902 local time (1602 BST) from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northern Russia.

It was due to make a circuit of Earth before separating from the upper stage of the rocket 90 minutes after launch.

But mission controllers have failed to receive the signal from the spacecraft indicating the procedure was a success.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4319596.stm

Damn - that's an important mission.

[Wilms]

1. Damn!

Polar satellite crashes into sea: reports

Reuters.com

Sat Oct 8, 2005 2:45 PM ET

MOSCOW (Reuters) - A European satellite designed to measure how fast the polar ice caps are melting crashed into the Arctic Ocean after its launch went wrong, the Russian agency that launched it was quoted as saying on Saturday.

The European Space Agency's Cryosat satellite was launched from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northern Russia but failed to establish communication at the scheduled time.

"We believe the satellite ... fell where the second rocket stage is supposed to fall, that is in the Lincoln Sea, near the North Pole," Itar-Tass news agency quoted Russian Space Troops official Oleg Gromov as saying.

European Space Agency spokesman Franco Bonacina said ground stations did not see if the rocket's third stage fired to put the satellite into the correct orbit.

snip/more

http://olympics.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=scienceNews&storyID=2005-10-08T184518Z_01_YUE867479_RTRUKOC_0_US-SPACE-RUSSIA-SATELLITE.xml

[GAspnes]

2. "there's no evidence of global warming...

...because we won't let any be collected."


Man, I'm getting paranoid.

[Phoonzang]

3. Hey you're not the only one...

I had the same thought too...