European Polar
Satellite Crashes Into Sea
October 10, 2005 — By Christian Lowe, Reuters
MOSCOW — A satellite designed to
measure how fast the polar ice caps are melting crashed into the Arctic
Ocean after its launch in northern Russia went wrong, the European Space
Agency said on Saturday.
The European Space Agency's (ESA) Cryosat satellite was launched from
Russia's Plesetsk Cosmodrome on board a converted nuclear missile but a
stage of the rocket's booster system failed to fire.
"The confirmation we have is that there has been a failure and that ...
the satellite with part of the launcher has fallen into the sea," ESA
spokesman Franco Bonacina told Reuters.
The satellite was launched at about 1500 GMT on Saturday on board a
Rokot launcher, which is a converted inter-continental ballistic
missile.
Equipment on board Cryosat is designed to allow it to take precise
measurements of the polar ice caps, which some scientists believe are
thinning as a result of global warming and could lead to higher sea
levels.
The satellite is reported to have cost $165 million and was to have
stayed in orbit gathering data for 3 years.
Russia's Space Troops, a division of the military that runs Plesetsk,
confirmed Cryosat had crashed.
"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 space troops official Oleg Gromov as
saying.
POLAR ICE
Existing date suggests that polar ice is melting, but scientists are
seeking more definitive information to help them predict changes to the
climate and they hoped Cryosat could provide that.
The polar ice caps act as cold stores for massive volumes of water
which, if released into the oceans, could leave low-lying cities like
New Orleans or London permanently underwater, scientists say.
The crash may deal a blow to Russia's lucrative commercial space launch
industry, a spinoff from its nuclear weapons programme which is now
responsible for putting a large proportion of the world's satellites in
orbit.
Russian space agency Roskosmos ordered a halt into all launches using
the Rokot vehicle until an investigation is carried out into what went
wrong, Interfax news reported.
That may affect the Dec. 27 launch of the Compsat-2 communications
satellite, due to go into orbit on board a Rokot launcher from Plesetsk,
reports said.
But Russia's state-owned Khrunichev plant that makes the rockets
defended their performance.
"This is the the seventh launch using a converted Rokot and six of them
have been successful," said Khrunichev general director Alexander
Medvedev, Itar-Tass reported.
Russia's space industry suffered another setback on Saturday when search
crews were unable to find an experimental space parachute -- also
developed jointly with the ESA -- that floated to earth in the remote
Kamchatka region.
(Additional reporting by Jon Boyle in Paris)
Source: Reuters |