capability and accuracy, remains the same. , the launch was scheduled for February 25, 2010 with a Dnepr rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, but this was delayed. The CryoSat 2 launched on April 8, 2010 at 13:57 UTC. For positioning purposes, CryoSat included a DORIS receiver, a laser retroreflector and three star trackers. The ERS-1 and ERS-2 satellites were precursors that tested the techniques used by CryoSat. Satellites CryoSat-1 was launched from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in Russia on October 8, 2005, using a Rockot launcher. (Rockot is a modified SS-19 rocket which was originally an ICBM designed to deliver nuclear weapons, but which Russia is now eliminating in accordance with the START treaties.) According to Mr. Yuri Bakhvalov, First Deputy Director General of the Khrunichev Space Centre, when the automatic command to switch off the second stage engine did not take effect, the second stage continued to operate until it ran out of fuel and as a consequence the planned separation of the third (Breeze-KM) stage of the rocket which carried the CryoSat satellite did not take place, and would thus have remained attached to the second stage. The upper rocket stages, together with the satellite, probably crashed in the Lincoln Sea. Analysis of the error revealed that it was caused by faults in the programming of the rocket, which had not been detected in simulations. After the launch failure of CryoSat, ESA immediately started to plan a replacement CryoSat mission. This included securing the industrial team which had built the original, ordering parts which have a long delivery time and establishing a funding scheme within existing budgets. Due to the importance of the scientific goals of this satellite, there was enormous support for this, and the initial phases for CryoSat-2 were approved when ESA's Earth Observation Programme Board agreed to build a copy of the spacecraft on February 23, 2006. See also ESA's Living Planet Programme GOCE CryoSat-2 Swarm ADM-Aeolus EarthCARE BIOMASS FLEX Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) NASA - launch 2002 Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite (ICESat) NASA - launch 2003 References External links Cryosat rocket fault laid bare CryoSat pages at ESA CryoSat-2 page at ESA Spacecraft Operations CryoSat on ESA Earth Online "Ice mission almost set for launch" – By Helen Briggs, BBC News, 22 July 2005 Why did Cryosat crash? Australian Broadcasting Company's The Lab Cryosat story Cryosat-2: Scientists and Polar Explorers Collect