The launch of the Cryosat-2 satellite was postponed until an unspecified date for further technical inspection, Russian Federal Agency Roscosmos spokesman Alexander Vorobyov said on Friday.

The launch of the CryoSat-2 satellite on a RS-20 Dnepr carrier rocket was initially scheduled for February 25 from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan.

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."

The ESA is hopeful that the mission will be successful, with CryoSat-2 ready to take a second chance.

In October 2005, the first CryoSat satellite, built by EADS Astrium for the European Space Agency worth 140 million euros, was lost after the satellite's Russian Rokot booster malfunctioned just a few minutes after blasting clear of the Plesetsk space center in northwest Russia and later ditched in the Arctic Ocean.

MOSCOW, February 19 (RIA Novosti)