OCO Fails To Reach Orbit

NASA's Orbiting Carbon Observatory satellite failed to reach orbit after its 4:55 a.m. EST liftoff 24th February 2009 from California's Vandenberg Air Force Base.

Preliminary indications are that the fairing on the Taurus XL launch vehicle failed to separate. The fairing is a clamshell structure that encapsulates the satellite as it travels through the atmosphere.

The spacecraft did not reach orbit and likely landed in the ocean near Antarctica, said John Brunschwyler, the program manager for the Taurus XL.

A Mishap Investigation Board is to determine the cause of the launch failure.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• OCO
• Orbiting
• Carbon
• Observatory
• Failure

[imstephanw]

You know how many satellites orbit around our planet, some which you probably use everyday? How the hell do you think they got there. I agree with the money situation, especially at times like this, where we need to just back off on the spending. I just hate how NASA's recognition is only put out on the news whenever somethings goes wrong. Just search videos about the Challenger or Columbia. You get more videos of the crash then you do of any of the previous missions they were used for combined.

[Clausfarre]

I hope NASA remembered to register the skin color of everyone involved in the mission for future use in their retarded black history month videos. I really lost all respect for NASA/NAACP after their recent set of disgusting videos. (no offense to you BrunoTQ).

[XODLC]

i dont like how nasa takes credit for whatever ends up working for them, but if something like a rocket blows up, they blame it on the company. "Oh look at this crap rocket orbital built!" my dad did a great job as the program manager.. and he had to take all the blame for other people not taking their time to make sure the rocket was put together correctly, they were too rushed. and then nasa made a huge deal about how much money was lost, even though it was no one's fault.

[Blackliam]

shit i didn't even know about this failure. that sucks!

[furgee]

Global warming is the biggest hoax ever

[seyoumeye]

Thanks for posting this.

CO2 researches have been hampered from the beginning by global warming theorist (who own also the mass media) blind to the present plunging ice-age global freezing (?)

We should really investigate further this ACCIDENT(?)

[JaalaJ]

Not wrong.

[JaalaJ]

What a shame. Thanks for posting Bruno.

[JaalaJ]

I agree with what you're saying, imstephanw. I remember after Columbia the next launch was all over the tv, on every station. Then the media looked to be quite upset that it went well. It was an anti-climax for them, so sickening I'll never forget the disappointment on their faces. They didn't bother to cover the landing, not here anyway.

[Fighting89Back]

We're killing off our seas. It's a place full of life with gaint squids and Gods knows what else; it's also a place we're ignorant of. If we don't explore it now, we may never get to, because it being killed off.

However, I don't think sea exploration will get much funding because it doesn't help war technology like space.

[hyhhy]

Hey, I'm all for sea exploration too, especially if it really is that cheap compared to space exploration. It won't take humanity to completely new worlds and probably won't produce technologies comparable to for example satellite communications, but I'm not against it in any way. It might even be synergistic with space exploration, since underwater is a hostile environment to a human somewhat like space.