Europe ice mission failure probed

A rocket carrying a European mission to map polar ice fell into the ocean, minutes after lift-off on 8 October 2005. The European Space Agency's Cryosat spacecraft took off from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northern Russia.

In February 2006 the European Space Agency (Esa) agreed to build a copy of the original £95m (€140m) craft.

• Primary Source

European Space Agency: Focus on CryoSat http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Observing_the_Earth/CryoSat

BBC News, 24.2.06: Go-ahead for Europe ice mission http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4745168.stm

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