Orbital Sciences Corporation, which makes the Taurus XL

[tabatha]

line of rockets, supposedly corrected a number of flaws in design found by NASA, including on the failed mechanism. NASA confirmed the fixes in October 2010.

http://www.independent.com/news/2011/mar/04/nasa-rocket-splashes-pacific/

[county worker]

1. I watched this one this morning. Just a little after it staged it kind of

faded out of sight. I live next to Vandenberg AFB

You can see the orange of the rocket exhaust and a flash when it stages but then instead of continuing it just sort of faded until it was no longer visible.

[madokie]

2. I wonder if maybe someone didn't want this one to make it to space

Study aerosols in the atmosphere isn't going to be very good news for a lot of board rooms

[tabatha]

3. From their website

Orbital's Launch of Taurus XL Rocket is Unsuccessful
-- NASA's Glory Satellite Fails to Achieve Orbit --

(Dulles, VA 4 March 2011) -- Orbital Sciences Corporation (NYSE: ORB) today announced that the launch of its Taurus XL rocket, which lifted off earlier today at 2:09 a.m. (PST), from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California carrying the company-built Glory satellite for NASA, was unsuccessful.

Preliminary indications are that the rocket’s payload fairing, a clamshell mechanism that encases the satellite as it travels through the atmosphere, failed to separate from the rocket. The previous time a Taurus XL rocket was launched was in 2009 for NASA’s Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO) mission. That launch also resulted in a failure due to a fairing separation problem. Since that time Orbital redesigned and tested the fairing separation system.

Orbital will immediately convene a failure investigation board that will include representative from the company and NASA to determine the cause of today’s launch failure. Orbital believes that it is likely that sufficient data was gathered to be able to determine the cause of the fairing separation failure.

About Orbital

Orbital develops and manufactures small- and medium-class rockets and space systems for commercial, military and civil government customers. The company’s primary products are satellites and launch vehicles, including low-Earth orbit, geosynchronous-Earth orbit and planetary exploration spacecraft for communications, remote sensing, scientific and defense missions; human-rated space systems for Earth-orbit, lunar and other missions; ground- and air-launched rockets that deliver satellites into orbit; and missile defense systems that are used as interceptor and target vehicles. Orbital also provides satellite subsystems and space-related technical services to U.S. Government agencies and laboratories.

http://www.orbital.com/NewsInfo/release.asp?prid=769

[tabatha]

4. Is this the trend for privatized rocket companies?

video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDs7kRX5hp4