NASA: Scientific satellite's failed launch a 'huge disappointment'

Computerworld - NASA is launching an investigation into a carbon-dioxide-detecting satellite's failed launch, which has disappointed and frustrated scientists studying global warming.

The Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO) satellite failed to reach orbit after its 4:55 a.m. Eastern time liftoff today from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, NASA reported on its Web site. While the failure comes as a major disappointment to scientists hoping to use the satellite's data to study global warming, NASA is not giving up on this area of research, according to Michael Freilch, director of NASA's Earth Science division.

"The OCO was an important mission to measure a critical element of the carbon dioxide cycle. Over the next several days, weeks and months, we'll evaluate how to move forward with that science," said Freilch during a press conference this morning. He added that NASA will move as "rapidly as possible" to pick up where the OCO satellite left off.

John Brunschwyler, NASA's Taurus XL program manager, said in a press conference this morning that initial data is pointing to the fairing on the Taurus XL launch vehicle as the cause of the problem. The fairing, which is designed to protect the payload during takeoff and then release it once it's past the Earth's atmosphere, failed to release the satellite. Brunschwyler said that because of the drag of the extra weight, the satellite could not reach orbit.

He said the NASA satellite appears to have landed in the ocean near Antarctica. He added that NASA tracked the satellite's descent and is "fairly confident" about the location of the crash site.

"Our whole team, at a very personal level, is disappointed in the events of this morning," said Brunschwyler during the press conference. "Certainly, for the scientific community, it's a huge disappointment. There [was great] anticipation of this groundbreaking spacecraft to measure what is in the forefront of every newspaper and has taken so long to get here."

The satellite was built to help scientists study global warming. Sensors onboard the satellite were geared to determine where carbon dioxide comes from and where it is pulled out of the atmosphere and stored. The Orbiting Carbon Observatory was expected to yield 8 million carbon dioxide measurements every 16 days, according to NASA. That, the space agency noted, would have represented a dramatic increase over the amount of data currently available from today's small network of instruments on the ground, on towers and in aircraft, and from limited space observations.

Since carbon dioxide is a key contributor to global warming, scientists had been highly hopeful that the data from the satellite would help them more accurately forecast global climate change.

NASA announced this morning that a mishap investigation board is being convened to study the problem. "I'm confident that the team will do a thorough investigation into the cause and we'll get back to flying at a pace that allows us to do so successfully," said Chuck Dovale, NASA's launch director.

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