A Russian Dnepr carrier rocket with the European Space Agency's CryoSat-2 Earth Explorer satellite blasted off from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan on Thursday.
CryoSat-2 is designed to monitor the effects of global warming on polar glaciers.
The initial launch of the satellite was scheduled for February 25, but was postponed due to technical reasons.
The satellite's predecessor, CryoSat-1, was built by the space company EADS Astrium for the European Space Agency at a cost of 140 million euro ($186 million).
It went missing in October 2005 after the satellite's Russian Rokot booster malfunctioned just a few minutes after blasting clear of the Plesetsk space center in northwest Russia. It later crashed into the Arctic Ocean.
MOSCOW, April 8 (RIA Novosti)
