**Europe’s Cryosat-2 spacecraft has launched from Baikonur in Kazakhstan on a mission to map the Earth’s ice cover.**The spacecraft’s Dnepr rocket left its silo and climbed skyward at 1357 GMT (1557 CEST). The satellite was expected in orbit some 16.5 minutes later.
Cryosat’s data should help scientists understand better how melting polar ice could affect ocean circulation patterns, sea level and global climate.
It is a copy of a spacecraft that was destroyed on launch in 2005.
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