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CryoSat: Ready for launch from Kazakhstan
18.02.2010
text: Gazeta.kz , exclusively for Gazeta.kz picture: cdn.physorg.com views: [2671] The European Space Agency says it's ready to launch the most sophisticated satellite ever created to investigate the Earth's ice fields. Related articlesThe New Space Race: Who Will Take the Lead? Russia to Mothball Historic Sputnik Launch Site
The CryoSat spacecraft is to lift off at 8:57 a.m. EST, Feb. 25 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan and reach an orbit 435 miles above Earth.
CryoSat will be the third of ESA's Earth Explorer satellites in orbit, following GOCE, launched in March 2009, and SMOS, launched in November 2009. It was to be the first device in the Earth Explorer series but the first satellite was lost as a result of a launcher failure in October 2005, the space agency said.
CryoSat will carry the first all-weather microwave radar altimeter that will be used to determine changes in the thickness of both floating sea ice, which can be up to several feet, and polar land ice sheets, which in Antarctica can be more than 3 miles, officials said.
The mission is designed to deliver data on the rate of change of the ice thickness accurate to within 1 centimeter, the ESA said.
Source: Upi.com. |
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