Sunday, March 01, 2009

CO<sub>2</sub> Monitoring Satellite Lost at Launch

Reuters reported Botched launch ends satellite's mission. I had missed this entirely. NASA planned the $278 million Orbiting Carbon Observatory for 8 years to monitor CO2 levels from space. On Tuesday it launched on a Taurus XL rocket (the first launch of that rocket) but the casing holding the satellite in place (known as the fairing) failed to open and it failed to achieve orbit.

The London Times has a good article and a video of the launch. Here are some thoughts of two of the scientists in the program.

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