Breaking News: February 25, 2009

NASA Global Warming Satellite Lands In Ocean---
280 Million Dollars Downed In Smoke ...

 

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. (AP) — A NASA satellite launched on a two-year mission to track carbon dioxide emissions worldwide had technical problems shortly after its pre-dawn takeoff that put the mission in jeopardy.

The Taurus XL rocket carrying the Orbiting Carbon Observatory blasted off at 1:55 a.m. PST Tuesday from California's Vandenberg Air Force Base, but NASA's George Diller says launch managers have shifted to a contingency plan because the payload fairing failed to separate properly from the spacecraft several minutes after the launch.
The fairing shelters the payload as the launch vehicle flies through the atmosphere.

The carbon observatory, part of a $280 million mission, is NASA's first satellite dedicated to monitoring carbon dioxide on a global scale. http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iXdhsfNkgwVvBi7G7FuHRALSg0GgD96HT3180

Satellite to Measure Global Warming Is Lost in Space (Update1)
By Alex Morales

Feb. 24 (Bloomberg) -- A satellite launched today from California failed to reach its planned orbit, dooming a mission to study global-warming gases, U.S. aerospace officials said.

“The mission is lost,” National Aeronautics and Space Administration spokesman Steve Cole said in a telephone interview from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. “At this point no one is exactly sure what the cause is.”

The device, called an Orbiting Carbon Observatory, was due to study how carbon dioxide enters and leaves the atmosphere, to help scientists pinpoint how the main greenhouse gas varies from year to year. That in turn was intended to guide government global-warming policy, according to NASA.

The craft “failed to reach orbit” after its launch at 1:51 a.m. local time, NASA said in a statement on its Web site. “The payload fairing around the Orbiting Carbon Observatory did not separate as planned.” Cole said he couldn’t elaborate on that statement. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=av6QSiI5BuOI&refer=us

NASA global warming satellite lands in ocean Minutes ago 2/24/09

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. (AP) — A rocket carrying a NASA global warming satellite splashed into the ocean near Antarctica early Tuesday after a failed launch.

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, the fairing on the rocket failed to separate, a preliminary investigation found. The fairing is a clamshell cover protecting the satellite as it is blasted through the atmosphere.

The 986-pound satellite was supposed to be placed into an orbit some 400 miles high to track carbon dioxide emissions.
"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."

The project was nine years in the making.

The rocket landed in the ocean near Antarctica. A group of environment ministers from more than a dozen countries are meeting on the southern continent this week to get the latest science on global warming.

NASA said it will convene a team of experts to investigate the loss of the satellite.

The observatory was NASA's first satellite dedicated to monitoring carbon dioxide on a global scale. Measurements collected from the $280 million mission were expected to improve climate models and help researchers determine where the greenhouse gas originates and how much is being absorbed by forests and oceans.

Last month, Japan successfully launched the world's first satellite to monitor global warming emissions.
Carbon dioxide is the leading greenhouse gas and its buildup helps trap heat from the sun, causing potentially dangerous warming of the planet. Carbon dioxide emissions rose 3 percent worldwide from 2006 to 2007, according to international science agencies.
On the Net: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iXdhsfNkgwVvBi7G7FuHRALSg0GgD96I0IC80

* Carbon Orbiting Observatory: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/oco/main/index.html

   
 

 

   

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