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Failure to launch: NASA's greenhouse gas monitoring mission crashes in Antarctica
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NASA is on the hot seat after a $273.4 million mission to monitor global warming failed to reach orbit early this morning. The muchly-ballyhooed Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO) thundered into the night sky aboard a Taurus rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California at 4:55 a.m. EST.
About twelve minutes later, the mission was over. A malfunction prevented the clamshell-like payload fairing, or shroud, to separate properly, trapping OCO.
Launch commentator George Diller said:
"...we are still trying to evaluate exactly what the status of the spacecraft is at this point and confirm the location and the orbit and the exact state the spacecraft is in."
During a briefing on NASA TV being broadcast at the time of publishing, NASA officials said that the OCO had fallen to Earth in the ocean in Antarctica. An accident investigation board will be convened.
Here's a video of the launch prior to the failure.
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