Malfunction hits Nasa CO2 sat

[dipsydoodle]

Source: BBC News

Nasa's first mission designed to measure carbon dioxide (CO2) from space has suffered a rocket malfunction.

Officials said that the fairing - the part of the rocket which covers the satellite on top of the rocket - failed to separate properly.

If the finding is confirmed, the mission would be lost.

The Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO) was intended to help pinpoint the key locations on our planet's surface where the gas is being emitted and absorbed

Read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7907570.stm

[Turborama]

1. Update: "Officials said the satellite had now crashed in Antarctica."

Nasa's first mission to measure carbon dioxide (CO2) from space has failed following a rocket malfunction.

Officials said the fairing - the part of the rocket which covers the satellite on top of the launcher - had failed to separate properly.

Officials said the satellite had now crashed in Antarctica.

The Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO) was intended to help pinpoint the key locations on our planet's surface where the gas is being emitted and absorbed.

Nasa officials confirmed the launch had failed at a press conference held at 1300 GMT.

The $270m mission was launched on a Taurus XL - the smallest ground-launched rocket currently in use by the US space agency.

Read More: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7907570.stm

-- ---- --

Here's the NASA footage of the lift of: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPBPLCH8MSs&feature=channel_page

And the NASA narator's reaction afterwards: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6Fv0ePN14s

[BootinUp]

2. Something like this happened in the movie "The Arrival"

que the twilight zone theme. lol.

[Gen. Jack D. Ripper]

3. That is unfortunate

but climate change is a myth anyway, so it doesn't matter.

:sarcasm:

[jayfish]

4. Man, Seems The Only Thing We Can Do Right...

these days is kill and incarcerate people. Look how far we have fallen.:cry:
Jay

[cobalt1999]

5. I don't look at this as an example of "how far we've fallen"

The success rate for launching satellites is only 92%. It's much better if you take out the 50's, 60's, & 70's.

Bottom line: It's a risky thing to do even now and we are MUCH better at it than we used to be.

[jayfish]

6. Maybe It's Just An Instant Coverage Thing...

because it's seems that, as of late, we loose a lot of them. 92% is not a great number when payloads (this one anyway)cost $278M. That's around $2.8B lost per 100 launches. I wouldn't count the 50-70's anyway as this was when we were in our infancy with respect to putting payloads in orbit.

Jay

[Purveyor]

7. Rocket With NASA Global Warming Satellite Crashes

Source: Associated Press

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. (AP) — A rocket carrying a NASA satellite crashed near Antarctica after a failed launch early Tuesday, ending a $280 million mission to track global warming from space.

The Taurus XL rocket carrying the Orbiting Carbon Observatory blasted off just before 2 a.m. from California's Vandenberg Air Force Base. But minutes later, a cover protecting the satellite during launch failed to separate from the rocket, a preliminary investigation found.

The 986-pound satellite was supposed to be placed into a polar orbit some 400 miles high to track carbon dioxide emissions. The project was nine years in the making, and the mission was supposed to last two years.

Scientists currently depend on 282 land-based stations — and scattered instrumented aircraft flights — to monitor carbon dioxide at low altitudes.

"Certainly for the science community it's a huge disappointment," said John Brunschwyler, Taurus project manager for Orbital Sciences Corp., which built the rocket and satellite. "It's taken so long to get here."

Read more: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iXdhsfNkgwVvBi7G7FuHRALSg0GgD96I1MEO0

[cosmicone]

8. Rush Limbaugh will probably say

"... this proves there is no global warming ... "

:banghead:

[nc4bo]

9. God's hand slapped it back down and said

Listen up stupidos, haven't any of you been paying attention? How about that crack in the glacial ice? Need more proof? Hold on a sec, I'll get right on it.

[thewiseguy]

10. Not good.

[El Supremo]

11. Was Senator Inhofe there?

[Mr. Sparkle]

12. sabotage? I would not put anything past the oil companies or the Taliban/Republican Party! n/t

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

13. Tin foil, anyone?

Someone didn't want that up there. Someone didn't want that up there very badly.

Anyone know what the failure rate is on Star Fleet's NASA's satellite launches? Just curious...

[cobalt1999]

14. It's always been risky

The U.S. is doing well with about a 95% rate if you take out the early years.

[daleo]

17. Interesting graph

The Russians seem to have by far the best success rate. I wonder why? Perhaps they stick with tried and true technology.

[cobalt1999]

19. They refined a very good booster and kept it with refinements

The grandfathers that launched hardware back in the 1960's could probably come back to work on the current version.

[tom_paine]

16. Nope. No tinfoil needed when dealing with Nazis and Bushies and totalitarian monsters

I only wonder if it was a straight-up Bushie Sabotage Black Op, complete with cutouts inserted into NASA, probably as janitors or other unobtrusive low-level positions where lack of scientific knowledge would not be an issue.

Or was it a "Lone Wolf" Freeper-type Op, where one of the Stormtroopers took it upon themselves to make the sabotage and destroy the Evil Lib'rul satellite.

We all know that the 30,000,000 Knoxville Shooter Clones consider crimes against Liberal to be necessary and moral, since like the Jews were to the Nazis, liberals are evil vermin so crimes against so are no crimes at all but of benefit to Bushie/Nazi Society.

Ollie North sold missiles to Iran, which later killed Americans, he and Secrd also probably sabotaged the 1980 Carter Rescue Mission. Which begs two questions to be asked:

1) How did Bush's two personal criminals wind up IN CHARGE of the mission who's failure ensured the election of Bushler I's Puppet, Reagan?

Quite a coincidence, there, out of all the 100s and 100s of officers qualified to organize and do intel on such a mission, that those two wound up exactly where they needed to be to sabotage the mission for their criminal bosses.

2) Given that, and all the other evidence of the 1980 October Surprise that had Bushies working with Iranians, why would the Democratic Congress refuse to investigate before 1985, to the genesis of the Bush-Iranian Terrorist relationship?

Bushies commit crimes, and Democrats pretend to fail to hold them accoountable.

[Turborama]

18. I'm not one for conspiracy theories but, I have to admit, the thought did cross my mind... n/t

[defendandprotect]

15. Since at least the Reagan adminsitration GOP has been trying to

keep NASA from monitoring ozone hole, Global Warming, etal ---

and they succeeded in large part as far as I can see!