Nasa global warming satellite fails

By Green Channel staff | Feb 26, 2009

A $270 million Nasa satellite dedicated to measuring the world’s carbon emission failed to reach orbit yesterday.
The Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO) satellite failed shortly after liftoff when the fairing – which protects the satellite as it speeds through the atmosphere – failed to separate.

It had lifted off on a Taurus XL launch rocket from California's Vandenberg Air Force Base early Tuesday morning local time.
The LEOStar-2 satellite landed in the sea near Antarctica, John Brunschwyler, manager of the Taurus program, told a press conference.

“The fairing has considerable weight relative to the portion of the vehicle that's flying. So when it separates off, you get a jump in acceleration. We did not have that jump in acceleration,” Brunschwyler said.

“As a direct result of carrying that extra weight, we could not make orbit.”

The satellite was expected to help clear up the mystery of the missing carbon “sink” - where carbon dioxide is pulled out of the atmosphere and stored.

While some 40% of carbon emissions since the Industrial Revolution have remained in the atmosphere, only half of the remaining 60% can be accounted for in the oceans. The rest must have been absorbed somewhere on land, but scientists have not yet discovered where.

OCO was to have collected 8 million measurements every 16 days for at least two years to help map the global distribution of carbon dioxide, Nasa said.

Attention now has turned to Japan’s Gosat (Greenhouse Gases Observing Satellite), launched in January and due to go into service in April.

Nasa said the planned launch of a second satellite to monitor greenhouse gas, scheduled for June, had been put on-hold pending the outcome of an investigation into the OCO failure.

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