Author Topic: LIVE: Dnepr – CryoSat-2 - April 8, 2010 – Baikonur (Read 59951 times)

jacqmans · « **Reply #20 on:** 02/17/2010 09:24 am »

The original proposal to build a satellite that would measure ice-thickness change came from Prof. Duncan Wingham in 1998. His role as Lead Investigator for CryoSat has been to maintain the scientific integrity of ESA’s ice mission – from the drawing board through to a real satellite mission.

Read full interview at:

http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Cryosat/SEMKS2NEG5G_0_iv.html

jacqmans · « **Reply #21 on:** 02/18/2010 09:59 am »

As Satellite Prime Contractor for CryoSat, EADS Astrium has led a consortium of 30 firms from Europe, the U.S. and Russia to design and build the satellite. In his role as Astrium Prime Project Manager, Klaus Köble has been leading these efforts for the past three years.

Read full interview at:

http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Cryosat/SEMWWK7CS5G_0_iv.html

JimO · « **Reply #22 on:** 02/18/2010 07:29 pm »

Russian press reports a delay of a few days for some payload technical issues.

Satori · « **Reply #23 on:** 02/19/2010 10:43 am »

Quote from: JimO on 02/18/2010 07:29 pm

Russian press reports a delay of a few days for some payload technical issues.

ESA confirms the delay caused by a concern related to the second stage steering engine of the Dnepr launcher.

See http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Cryosat/SEME9R7CS5G_0.html

anik · « **Reply #24 on:** 02/19/2010 09:25 pm »

Launcher Concern Delays ESA’s Cryosat-2 Mission
http://www.spacenews.com/earth_observation/2010-02-19-launcher-concern-delays-esa-cryosat-2.html

"PARIS - The scheduled Feb. 25 launch of Europe’s Cryosat-2 polar ice monitoring satellite has been postponed for at least several weeks following an assessment by designers of the Russian-Ukrainian Dnepr rocket that the converted ballistic missile might not be able to place the craft into its intended orbit without modification, the European Space Agency (ESA) announced Feb. 19"

Danderman · « **Reply #25 on:** 02/22/2010 08:03 pm »

??

Is this due to a failure of some 2nd stage element, or is there a larger problem?

patchfree · « **Reply #26 on:** 02/22/2010 08:09 pm »

No it's a problem of performance of Dniepr which are "at the limits" according to recent path calculations. A possible lack of propellant to reach the orbit.

"Although the fuel supply of the second stage engine should be sufficient to get CryoSat into orbit, the fuel reserve is not as large as they would like it to be, according to the Ukrainian company Yuzhnoye, who developed and is responsible for the launcher. The situation is being reviewed, and measures will be taken to resolve this concern.

Kosmotras, the launch provider, will inform ESA of a new launch date shortly."

jacqmans · « **Reply #27 on:** 02/23/2010 03:19 pm »

Following last week’s announcement that there would be a launch delay, the space head module encasing CryoSat-2 has been removed from the launcher and returned to the integration facilities.

Read more at:

http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Cryosat/SEM7SH3KV5G_0.html

jacqmans · « **Reply #28 on:** 02/26/2010 02:45 pm »

As ESA’s Mission Scientist for CryoSat, Mark Drinkwater’s role in supporting the preparation of the mission has been to ensure that the satellite and data processing systems are compatible with achieving the mission’s objectives of deriving accurate measurements of ice-thickness change.

Read more at:

http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Cryosat/SEM4R34KV5G_0_iv.html

osiossim · « **Reply #29 on:** 03/11/2010 07:40 am »

http://www.spaceflightnow.com/news/n1003/10dnepr/

I assume some of the ISCK's customers (satellite manufacturers) pushed journalists to type this kind of article or type it on their own and published on SpaceFlightNow.

Jester · « **Reply #30 on:** 03/19/2010 08:00 am »

Launch now scheduled for 8th of April

http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Cryosat/SEMIOT9KF6G_0.html

jacqmans · « **Reply #31 on:** 03/25/2010 03:23 pm »

The task of having to babysit CryoSat has now officially ended with the arrival of the launch campaign team back in Baikonur.

Read more at:

http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Cryosat/SEM1NT8I77G_0.html

jacqmans · « **Reply #32 on:** 03/29/2010 09:25 am »

Presse Release N°06-2010
Paris, 29 March 2010

Invitation to the press for CryoSat-2 launch

For the launch of the CryoSat-2 satellite, scheduled for Thursday 8 April at 15:57 CEST, representatives of the press are invited to watch the event live from ESA's European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) in Darmstadt, Germany.

This new launch date has been confirmed by International Space Company Kosmotras following the implementation and validation of a change in the launcher's flight software.

Monitoring variations in the thickness of marine ice floating in the polar oceans and changes in the vast ice sheets that overlie Greenland and Antarctica, ESA's ice mission CryoSat deploys the most sophisticated satellite ever to study the Earth's ice fields.

CryoSat-2 will be placed into orbit 700 km above the Earth by a Russian Dnepr rocket launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Lift-off is scheduled for 15:57 CEST (13:57 UTC) on Thursday 8 April 2010. The launch operator is Kosmotras.

Press representatives are invited to watch the launch live from ESA's ESOC establishment in Darmstadt. A European Press Centre will be open from 12:30 to 17:30 and ESA is hosting a launch event from 14:00 to 16:30. Live televised transmission of the launch will provide pictures from Baikonur and from Mission Control at ESOC for broadcasters. Further details of the TV transmission can be found at http://television.esa.int. ESA senior management and programme specialists will be on hand to give explanations and interviews.

Media representatives wishing to follow events from Darmstadt or watch the launch live from another ESA establishment should fill in the attached accreditation form and to fax it back to one of the numbers provided below.

CryoSat will be the third of ESA's Earth Explorer satellites in orbit, following the launches of GOCE (in March 2009) and SMOS (in November 2009). It was originally due to be ESA's first Earth Explorer, but the first satellite was lost as a result of a launcher failure in October 2005.

The 700 kg CryoSat spacecraft -whose name comes from the Greek kryos meaning cold or ice- carries the first all-weather microwave radar altimeter. The instrument has been optimised for determining changes in the thickness of both floating sea ice, which can be up to several metres, and polar land ice sheets, which in Antarctica can be close to 5 km thick. The mission will deliver data on the rate of change of the ice thickness accurate to within one centimetre.

Recent record-lows in the extent of summer Arctic sea-ice cover demonstrate that significant changes are occurring in the polar regions. While ice cover has been mapped from space for many years by satellites such as Envisat, there remains an urgent need to determine how ice thickness is changing.

Data from the CryoSat mission will provide the scientific community with hard evidence on how the Earth's ice is changing and will lead to a better understanding of the role ice plays in climate and sea-level change.
Any change to the launch date will be announced on our answering machine at
+49 (0)6151 90 2609 and on the CryoSat website at www.esa.int/cryosat.
For further information please contact:

ESA Media Relations Office
Communication Department
Te: + 33 1 5369 7299
Fax: + 33 1 5369 7690

jacqmans · « **Reply #33 on:** 03/30/2010 10:34 am »

Nic Mardle is the Spacecraft Operations Manager (SOM) for CryoSat-2, and is responsible for ensuring that the satellite is properly controlled and for managing the Flight Control Team. She brings a wealth of experience to the team, having served as SOM for the first CryoSat and, like the CryoSat community in general, is looking forward to the satisfaction of seeing it finally in orbit.

Read more at:

http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Cryosat/SEMV1QMEG5G_0_iv.html

jacqmans · « **Reply #34 on:** 03/31/2010 08:53 pm »

With only seven days to go before launch, CryoSat-2 encapsulated within the Dnepr launcher's space head module has been loaded back onto the 'crocodile' in readiness for transportation to the launch silo tomorrow.

Read more at:

http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Cryosat/SEMJEJIK97G_0.html

arkaska · « **Reply #35 on:** 04/01/2010 03:24 pm »

In readiness for launch on 8 April, ESA's CryoSat-2 ice satellite has now joined the rest of the Dnepr rocket in the launch silo at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Cryosat/SEMLOQIK97G_0.html

jacqmans · « **Reply #36 on:** 04/06/2010 03:05 pm »

A timeline of the most critical events around the launch of ESA's CryoSat-2 satellite, scheduled for 15:57 CEST on Thursday, 8 April 2010.

More at:

http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Cryosat/SEM4ERZNK7G_0.html

jacqmans · « **Reply #37 on:** 04/06/2010 05:29 pm »

Marking one of the last milestones in the campaign to launch CryoSat-2, the dress rehearsal of the countdown procedure has taken place at ESA's European Spacecraft Operations Centre (ESOC) and at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

Read more at:

http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Cryosat/SEMLZTZNK7G_0.html

Zipi · « **Reply #38 on:** 04/07/2010 05:56 am »

Launch can be followed from ESA's livestream: http://www.livestream.com/eurospaceagency

Or via satellite TV: http://television.esa.int/

jacqmans · « **Reply #39 on:** 04/07/2010 04:40 pm »

Following yesterday's launch dress rehearsal and the debriefing today, the Russian State Commission has given the go-ahead to launch ESA's ice mission tomorrow at 15:57 CEST.

Read more at:

http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Cryosat/SEMVPXZNK7G_0.html