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Measurements from ESA’s CryoSat satellite show that the volume of Arctic sea ice has significantly increased this past autumn. The volume of ice measured this autumn is about 50% higher compared to last year. In October 2013, CryoSat measured about 9000 cubic km of sea ice – a notable increase compared to 6000 cubic km in October 2012. Over the last few decades, satellites have shown a downward trend in the area of Arctic Ocean covered by ice. However, the actual volume of sea ice has proven difficult to determine because it moves around and so its thickness can change....

European satellite CryoSat was ruined with Ukrainian electronics The Reason of failure of a booster rocket "Roar" with European scientific satellite CryoSat became sofware failure in the equipment of bosster block management " Breeze-km ", "Businessman" informs. This equipment has been developed on Kharkov joint-stock company "HARTRON". "Roar" has been created on the basis of two-level ballistic missiles RS-18 removed from arm forces (on NATO classification - SS-19). It consists of three steps - first two represent the block of accelerators of strategic rocket RS-18 (on NATO classification - SS-19), as the third step is "Breeze-km". Failure has occured on...

Space agencies are investigating why a rocket carrying a European mission to map polar ice fell into the ocean. The European Space Agency's Cryosat spacecraft was lost minutes after lift-off from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northern Russia on yesterday evening. Russian officials say an error caused the rocket's second stage to run out of fuel, so it could not eject the probe. The £90m (135m euro) craft was designed to monitor how the Earth's ice masses are responding to climate change. The Esa satellite was launched at 19.02 local time (16.02 BST), but mission controllers failed to make contact with...

MOSCOW --Russia suspended launches of a rocket used in a failed mission to put a European satellite into orbit to map polar ice, news reports Sunday said. The Rokot booster rocket will not be launched again pending the outcome of an investigation into Saturday's unsuccessful launch, state-run Rossiya television reported, citing the Russian space agency. Space agency officials could not immediately be reached Sunday to confirm the report. The rocket's second stage failed to separate following the launch and the Cryosat satellite fell into the Arctic Ocean, Russian and European officials said. The second stage did not separate apparently because...

MOSCOW, Oct. 8 (Agence France-Presse) - A European satellite that was to have helped scientists understand global warming by scanning the thickness of polar ice sheets crashed into the Arctic Ocean on Saturday after its Russian launcher failed, officials said. The $170 million Cryosat satellite blasted off from the northwestern Plesetsk cosmodrome atop a Russian-built Rockot launch vehicle, a converted Soviet-era SS-19 ballistic missile, but failed to achieve orbit, Vyacheslav Davidenko, a spokesman for the Russian Space Agency, was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency. The European Space Agency official in charge of the project, Pascal Gilles, said...

A European satellite designed to measure how fast the polar ice caps are melting has crashed into the Arctic Ocean after its launch failed. The European Space Agency's CryoSat was on board a rocket launched from a cosmodrome in northern Russia but it failed to establish communication at the scheduled time. A Russian space official says the satellite is believed to have fallen into the Lincoln Sea near the North Pole, where the second rocket stage was supposed to fall. The $224 million satellite was to have scanned the thickness of polar ice sheets and floating sea ice with unprecedented...

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. Volker Liebig, director of Earth Observation Programmes at the European Space Agency, said it did not mean the mission was lost but it raised concerns...