It’s really sad, the OCO did not make it to orbit. The fairing on the taurus XL rocket did not separate. It did not reach orbit because of the added weight of the fairing. OCO crashed just short of Antarctica a few minutes after launch. There is no clarity about any flight spares yet, and the decision to rebuild or abandon the project has not been made yet. An investigation has been set up to determine exactly why the taurus xl failed to insert OCO into orbit.
Out of a total of 8 taurus XL launches, 2 have failed. That is a failure rate of 25%. It looks like a very unreliable rocket compared to the failure rate of the heavier delta II for example (139 successes out of 141 launches).
I really do hope they complete the A-Train by rebuilding and launching OCO II.
NASA will launch their new OCO satellite soon. This is yet another satellite to monitor our earth’s parameters and changes over time. It will be the first dedicated spacecraft to register carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere. The instruments will map the entire earth every 16 days. The OCO will be flying in formation with 5 other earth observing spacecraft also known as the “A-Train”. All these spacecraft describe the same orbit and will pass over the same point on earth just minutes after another. The acquired data can be correlated with the data obtained by the other satellites because the data gathering of the 6 spacecraft happens almost simultaneous.
The A-train, including the soon to be launched OCO.
Another cool thing about this mission is the available to all data that can be found here: http://oco-dc.jpl.nasa.gov/. If only I knew more about C++ and learned how to work with HDS (Hierarchical Data System) data storage.
The OCO launch is currently targeted for February 23rd. The heavy lifting is provided by a taurus rocket.
The 23th of February will be a good day for climate science!
