CryoSat-1, also known as just CryoSat, was a

European Space Agency The European Space Agency (ESA) is a 23-member International organization, international organization devoted to space exploration. With its headquarters in Paris and a staff of around 2,547 people globally as of 2023, ESA was founded in 1975 ...

satellite A satellite or an artificial satellite is an object, typically a spacecraft, placed into orbit around a celestial body. They have a variety of uses, including communication relay, weather forecasting, navigation ( GPS), broadcasting, scient ...

which was lost in a launch failure in 2005. The satellite was launched as part of the European Space Agency's CryoSat mission, which aims to monitor ice in the high latitudes. The second mission satellite, CryoSat-2, was successfully launched in April 2010.

Background

The European Space Agency's CryoSat mission was developed following the success of previous satellite altimeters, including

Envisat Envisat ("Environmental Satellite") is a large Earth-observing satellite which has been inactive since 2012. It is still in orbit and considered space debris. Operated by the European Space Agency (ESA), it was the world's largest civilian Ear ...

ERS-1 European Remote Sensing satellite (ERS) was the European Space Agency's first Earth-observing satellite programme using a polar orbit. It consisted of two satellites, ERS-1 and ERS-2, with ERS-1 being launched in 1991. ERS-1 ERS-1 launched ...

and

ERS-2 European Remote Sensing satellite (ERS) was the European Space Agency's first Earth-observing satellite programme using a polar orbit. It consisted of two satellites, ERS-1 and ERS-2, with ERS-1 being launched in 1991. ERS-1 ERS-1 launched ...

. The primary aim of the mission is to allow scientists to measure sea ice thickness and monitor changes on the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets using radar altimetry. The primary instrument on board the satellite was the Synthetic Aperture Interferometric Radar Altimeter (SIRAL), specifically designed to measure both sea ice and polar ice sheets. The method can allow detection of small changes in ice height and sea level, meaning scientists can measure both sea ice thickness and elevation change. A second instrument, DORIS, was to have been used to calculate precisely the spacecraft's orbit. It also carried an array of

retroreflector A retroreflector (sometimes called a retroflector or cataphote) is a device or surface that reflects light or other radiation back to its source with minimum scattering. This works at a wide range of angle of incidence (optics), angle of incidenc ...

s which would have allowed measurements to be made from the ground to verify the orbital data provided by DORIS. The spacecraft was the first in the European Space Agency's Earth Explorer missions, and was intended to operate in

low Earth orbit A low Earth orbit (LEO) is an geocentric orbit, orbit around Earth with a orbital period, period of 128 minutes or less (making at least 11.25 orbits per day) and an orbital eccentricity, eccentricity less than 0.25. Most of the artificial object ...

for three years at an unusually high inclination, therefore reaching the high latitudes. Construction began in 2001, with

EADS Astrium Astrium was a European aerospace company and subsidiary of the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS), headquartered in Paris. It designed, developed and manufactured civil and military space systems and provided related services ...

being award the contract to build the satellite.

Eurockot Eurockot Launch Services GmbH is a commercial spacecraft launch provider and was founded in 1995. Eurockot uses an expendable launch vehicle called the Rockot to place satellites into low Earth orbit (LEO). Eurockot is jointly owned by ArianeGroup ...

was to conduct the launch of the satellite using a

Rokot Rokot ( meaning ''Rumble'' or ''Boom''), also transliterated Rockot, was a Soviet Union (later Russian) space launch vehicle that was capable of launching a payload of into a Earth orbit with 63° inclination. It was based on the UR-100N ( ...

Briz-KM The Briz-K, Briz-KM and Briz-M ( meaning ''Breeze-K, KM and M'') are Russian liquid-propellant rocket orbit insertion upper stages manufactured by Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center and used on the Proton-M and Angara A5. T ...

carrier rocket A launch vehicle is typically a rocket-powered vehicle designed to carry a payload (a crewed spacecraft or satellites) from Earth's surface or lower atmosphere to outer space. The most common form is the ballistic missile-shaped multistag ...

. The spacecraft cost €95 million and weighed 750 kilograms.

Launch failure

In September 2005, CryoSat-1 arrived at the launch site in

Plesetsk Cosmodrome Plesetsk Cosmodrome () is a Russian spaceport located in Mirny, Arkhangelsk Oblast, near the town of Plesetsk, from which it takes its name. Until 2025 and the commissioning of the Andøya Space, Andøya base in Norway, it was the only operati ...

, Russia. CryoSat-1 was launched at 15:02:00 UTC on 8 October 2005, however, the satellite failed to reach orbit. The European Space Agency reported that the first stage performed nominally, but the second stage main engine cut-off did not occur as expected. A missing command from the onboard flight control system resulted in the main engine continuing to operate until remaining fuel was depleted. Therefore, the separation of the second stage and upper stage did not happen, and the satellite could not reach orbit. CryoSat-1 fell into the drop zone north of

Greenland Greenland is an autonomous territory in the Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark. It is by far the largest geographically of three constituent parts of the kingdom; the other two are metropolitan Denmark and the Faroe Islands. Citizens of Greenlan ...

near the

North Pole The North Pole, also known as the Geographic North Pole or Terrestrial North Pole, is the point in the Northern Hemisphere where the Earth's rotation, Earth's axis of rotation meets its surface. It is called the True North Pole to distingu ...

. There were no safety concerns to populated areas. Due to the importance of the CryoSat mission for monitoring Earth's polar regions, a recovery mission was announced less than five months after CryoSat's failure. CryoSat-2 was successfully launched in 2010.

References

{{Use British English, date=January 2014 Spacecraft launched in 2005 Satellite launch failures Earth observation satellites of the European Space Agency Spacecraft launched by Rokot rockets Space synthetic aperture radar Earth satellite radar altimeters Space accidents and incidents in Russia

Background

Launch failure

See also

References