CryoSat

CryoSat is an ESA programme to monitor variations in the extent and thickness of polar ice through use of a satellite in low Earth orbit.

The information provided about the behaviour of coastal glaciers that drain thinning ice sheets will be key to better predictions of future sea level rise.

The most significant was the decision to provide a fully duplicated payload to enable the mission to continue if a fault caused the loss of the SIRAL radar, but there were many other changes "under the hood".

(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.)

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.