NASA Rocket Failed Launch
Created: Feb 24 2009
Related articles: World > North America
STORY:
There was embarrassment for NASA on Tuesday following the loss of a 278 million dollar (USD) climate satellite.
The rocket carrying the Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO) apparently failed to separate.
Details are still unclear, but if this is the case it's feared the mission could be lost.
The satellite was designed to map the global distribution of carbon dioxide emissions and how that distribution changes over time.
Minutes after lift-off from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, the payload—the part carrying the satellite—failed to separate.
The weight of the rocket and satellite was too great to reach orbit and the whole craft fell back to Earth, landing in the ocean off Antarctica.
Carbon dioxide is considered the leading greenhouse gas driving climate change.
U.S. president Barack Obama made it a campaign pledge to increase study into climate change and this disaster is sure to cause a set-back to the research.
