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ESA Contracts Eurockot For CryoSat Launch

Paris/Bremen, 17 September 2002

The European Space Agency, Paris, and Eurockot Launch Services GmbH, Bremen, today announced the signing of a contract covering the launch of the CryoSat satellite. CryoSat is now scheduled to be launched in June 2004 using the Rockot launch vehicle from Plesetsk Cosmodrome in Northern Russia. Rockot will deploy CryoSat with a mass of 750 kg into a near polar orbit of 92 degrees inclination and an altitude of 717 km. The contract follows an international launch competition by ESA earlier this year. This mission will be Eurockot`s first launch for the European Space Agency.

CryoSat is the first of ESA's "Earth Explorer Opportunity Missions"; these are a series of small satellites intended to address specific scientific issues within an appropriate timescale. The importance of monitoring changes in the thickness of the Antarctic icecap is widely known because of its potential for inducing changes in sea-level. In contrast, the floating sea-ice in the Arctic cannot influence the sea-level, but is an important factor in climate change. The temporate climate in Europe is maintained by the Gulf Stream, which transports warm water from the tropics northwards into the Greenland Sea. The cooling water sinks and returns along the ocean bottom; this sinking is significantly influenced by the salinity of the water. The Arctic sea-ice is a floating reservoir of fresh water and any thinning of the ice will lead to the release of fresh water and change in the ocean salinity. Clearly, fluctuations in the ice thickness have to be taken into account in trying to understand and predict the ocean water circulation and heat transport. CryoSat will fill this gap. The spacecraft is being built by Astrium GmbH in Friedrichshafen under contract to ESA.

The order follows on from contracts placed with Eurockot for the joint NASA / DLR GRACE mission, the IRIDIUM IS - 2 mission - both successfully launched in 2002 -, the Canadian Space Agency's MOST mission which will be a shared launch with the Czech MIMOSA satellite in early 2003, and the Japanese SERVIS - 1 mission in late 2003. Eurockot Launch Services is the joint venture of Astrium GmbH (51 percent) and Khrunichev Space Center (49 percent) and provides commercial launch services to operators of low earth orbit satellites using the flight-proven Rockot launch vehicle from its dedicated launch and customer facilities at Plesetsk Cosmodrome.

Further information

Peter Freeborn
Tel.: + 49 421 539 6512
eMail: peter.freeborn@astrium-space.com