Russia test-launched a mini spacecraft

designed for ferrying cargo from space to Earth Friday on a sea-based

ballistic missile.(Photo: Xinhua/Reuters) BEIJING, Oct. 10(Xinhuanet)- Scientists are busy probing the failed mission of a European Space Agency satellite CryoSat that was to have collected data on polar ice.

The CryoSat satellite did not respond to a communication command six minutes after the Rokot rocket carrying it blasted off from northern Russia and as a result, the second stage of the carrier rocket failed to separate.

A ESA(European Space Agency) official said Saturday in Germany that it was possible that the missing European satellite has taken a different orbit than planned.

Flight director Alan Smith, speaking at the ESA control center in Darmstadt, Germany that it was unclear if the final stage of the rocket, which carried the agency's CryoSat research satellite, had ignited.

On Saturday, the Russian Space Forces said Cryosat might have crashed into the sea after it lost contact with the satellite two hours after liftoff.

"We believe the satellite fell into the sea near the Arctic," General Oleg Gromov, deputy commander of the Space Forces, was quoted as saying by the Itar-Tass news agency..

The problem appeared to be with the booster rocket that was supposed to lift the CryoSat unit into orbit, Vyacheslav Davidenko, a spokesman for the Russian Federal Space Agency said.

"The booster unit did not switch on and it resulted in the failure of the satellite to reach orbit," he said."The remnants of the satellite have fallen into the northern Arctic Ocean."Cryosat lifted off at 1502 GMT(11:02 a.m. EDT) Saturday aboard a Rockot vehicle originating from the Russian Plesetsk Cosmodrome located in the nation's far north. The joint European-Russian Eurockot firm provided the launcher, which is largely derived from the Russian SS-19 missile used by military forces.

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Missing satellite may have taken different

orbit

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European satellite crashes into sea after

launch

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Russia test-launches mini spacecraft to ship cargo from

space to Earth

However, problems arose before the rocket reached its target altitude for deployment of Cryosat, and the$170 million satellite fell into the Arctic Ocean near the North Pole before completing its first orbit of Earth.

"Preliminary analysis of the telemetry data indicates that the first stage performed nominally. The second stage performed nominally until main engine cut-off was to occur. Due to a missing command from the onboard flight control system the main engine continued to operate until depletion of the remaining fuel," the satellite's owner, the European Space Agency, said in a statement announcing the launch failure.

The loss of the CryoSat satellite is a major blow to the agency, which had hoped to conduct a three-year mapping of polar sea ice and provide more reliable data for the study of global warming.

The incident also damaged the reputation of the Russian space agency, which is aggressively trying to move into the commercial satellite launch business. German news reports said the satellite cost an estimated$210 million. Enditem

(Agencies)