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Carbon detecting satellite crashes
CSU team devoted years to project that cost $280 million
Published February 24, 2009 at 9:10 a.m.
Updated February 24, 2009 at 11:58 p.m.
Photo by Associated Press
This handout photo released by Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., shows the launch early Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2009, of a Taurus XL rocket equipped with NASA's Orbiting Carbon Observatory satellite which apparently failed to separate from the launch vehicle and splashed into the ocean.
The satellite that was to record carbon emissions worldwide failed to reach orbit early Tuesday and plunged into the ocean, disappointing Colorado researchers who'd worked years on the project.
The Orbiting Carbon Observatory, a $280 million mission that occupied the efforts of a team of Colorado State University scientists, lifted off at 2:55 a.m. MST from California's Vandenberg Air Force Base, CSU said in a statement.
Three minutes into the flight, the nose cone protecting the satellite failed to come off as designed, NASA officials said. The extra weight from the cover caused the rocket to dive back to Earth, splashing down near Antarctica.
The 986-pound satellite was supposed to be placed into a polar orbit 400 miles high. The observatory was NASA's first satellite dedicated to monitoring carbon dioxide on a global scale.
The aim was to serve as an early-warning system to the build-up of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, which most scientists agree is a main cause of global warming.
"Wow! Bad news this morning," said Scott Denning, an atmospheric science professor at CSU and a member of the team that planned to analyze data from the satellite.
"We put years into getting ready for this," Denning said.
CSU was part of an international team responsible for turning observations into precise measurements of carbon dioxide concentration and ultimately determining sources of the greenhouse gas.
The satellite's instruments also were designed to find "sinks" - areas of healthy forests and cool ocean water that can absorb carbon dioxide - and areas of decaying forest or melting Arctic ice that no longer are able to absorb carbon dioxide.
The data could have been used to guide policy decisions or to demonstrate how crucial it is to, say, halt slash-and-burn agriculture in the Amazon, CSU scientists had said.
A Mishap Investigation Board will try to determine the cause of the launch failure.
"I think we just get up, dust ourselves off and push to do it again, because it's the right thing to do and these measurements serve an enormous good beyond CSU, beyond NASA," said Graeme Stephens, one of the principal investigators for the CSU team.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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