CryoSat Reflight Will Depend on ESA Budget

摘要

Faced with an unclear budget picture, European authorities said they cannot guarantee they will rebuild the CryoSat radar Earth observation satellite that was lost Oct. 8 in a launch failure. CryoSat, designed to study the polar ice sheets for three years, was built for 70 million euros ($84 million) by an industrial team led by EADS Astrium. The entire CryoSat program, including the launch aboard a Russian Rockot vehicle, ground installations and three years of operations, was budgeted at 136 million euros.