Article Posted on : - Feb 19, 2010

A file photo of European Space Agency's CryoSat-2.

MOSCOW (BNS): Russian space agency Roscosmos has delayed the launch of CryoSat-2 satellite which was scheduled for February 25, from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan, a media report said.

"The launch of the Cryosat-2 satellite was postponed until an unspecified date for further technical inspection," RIA Novosti quoted the Russian Federal Agency spokesman Alexander Vorobyov as saying on Friday.

The European Space Agency's CryoSat-2 Earth Explorer satellite has to be launched on a RS-20 Dnepr carrier rocket. ESA is hopeful that the mission will be successful, with CryoSat-2 ready to take a second chance.

According to the ESA, the CryoSat mission is dedicated to "precise monitoring of the changes in the thickness of marine ice floating in the polar oceans and variations in the thickness of the vast ice sheets that overlay Greenland and Antarctica."