CryoSat-2 launch delayed to February
Mon Sep 14, 2009 at 12:05 UTC
A new target launch date of 28 February 2010 has been announced for ESA's CryoSat mission.
The slip, from the planned launch date of December this year, is due to the limited availability of facilities at the Baikonur launch site in Kazakhstan, which is particularly busy at the moment.
Richard Francis, ESA's Project Manager for CryoSat, commented that, "Naturally we are disappointed at this further delay. The satellite has already spent over six months in storage waiting for a launch opportunity. We restarted test activities in April hoping to have a clear run, but unfortunately we will now have to put the satellite back into its container for another few months. Now we're replanning to make sure that the whole team is fully trained and at peak performance on the day. After the disappointment of losing the original CryoSat, before we even had the chance to contact it, we are eagerly awaiting this launch. We just have to wait longer."
CryoSat will be the third of ESA's Earth Explorer missions in orbit, following on from the GOCE gravity mission in March, and the SMOS water mission, which is being shipped to the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in Russia this week for launch on 2 November.
CryoSat will soon be packed up in readiness for shipment to the Baikonur Cosmodrome in December, where it will be prepared for launch at the end of February.
| Source: European Space Agency | |
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