Article Posted on : - Feb 25, 2009

NASA's Orbiting Carbon Observatory and its Taurus booster lift off from Vandenberg Air Force Base. A contingency was declared a few minutes later. Image credit: Orbital Sciences Corporation

WASHINGTON (BNS): NASA’s first Carbon Observatory satellite fired into the orbit on Tuesday at 4:55am failed during the launch at California's Vandenberg Air Force Base.

Preliminary indications reveal that the fairing on the Taurus XL launch vehicle failed to separate. The fairing is a clamshell structure that encapsulates the satellite as it travels through the atmosphere. Typically the payload fairing detaches from the launcher at a height of 120km.

NASA said that a Mishap Investigation Board would be immediately convened to determine the cause of the launch failure.

The Orbiting Carbon Observatory was supposed to map the global distribution of carbon dioxide and study how the distribution changes over time. It is NASA’s first spacecraft dedicated to studying carbon dioxide. In January, Japan launched a satellite on a similar mission. Carbon dioxide is the leading human-produced greenhouse gas driving climate change.