NASA's Satellite Lost in Pacific Ocean..[ 2144 ]

NASA's $400 Million Glory Satellite Lost in Pacific Ocean

NASA

An illustration of the Glory satellite in orbit over the Earth.

Published March 04, 2011

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VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. –   

There will be no glory for NASA's Glory satellite today. 

A rocket that blasted off early Friday carrying the $424 million Glory Earth-observation satellite failed to reach orbit, NASA said, and has most likely crashed into the ocean.

In a press conference early Friday morning, Omar Baez, NASA launch director, explained the space agency's theory on the rocket. 

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"All indications are that the satellite and rocket are in the southern Pacific Ocean," Baez said. "And that's all I have for you."

Rich Straka of Orbital Sciences Corp., the private company responsible for the launch, had few details to add: "Right now we're crunching the data, but there really isn't enough data to say anything more than the fairing didn't separate."

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A Taurus XL rocket blasted off carrying NASA's Glory satellite from Vandenberg Air Force Base early Friday March 4, 2011.

Ron Grabe, executive vice president with the company, described it as a "tough night for all of us." The teams involved are devastated, Grabe said, comparing this latest loss to a similar incident from a few years ago. 

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The Taurus XL rocket carrying NASA's Glory satellite lifted off about 2:10 a.m. PST from Vandenberg Air Force Base, officials said. But NASA said in a brief statement that a protective shell or "fairing" atop the rocket did not separate from the satellite as it should have about three minutes after the launch.

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That left the Glory spacecraft without the velocity to reach orbit, NASA launch commentator George Diller said.

"The flight was going well until the time of fairing separation," Diller said. "We did not have a successful fairing separation from the Taurus and there was insufficient velocity with the fairing still on for the vehicle to achieve orbit."

The status of the flight wasn't immediately clear and flight officials didn't immediately respond to calls for further comment.

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Glory was launched on a three-year mission to analyze how airborne particles affect Earth's climate. Besides monitoring particles in the atmosphere, it will also track solar radiation to determine the sun's effect on climate change.

The $424 million mission is managed by the NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland.
Friday's launch came after engineers spent more than a week troubleshooting a glitch that led to a last-minute scrub.

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Glory was supposed to study tiny atmospheric particles known as aerosols, which reflect and trap sunlight. The vast majority occurs naturally, spewed into the atmosphere by volcanoes, forest fires and desert storms. Aerosols can also come from manmade sources such as the burning of fossil fuel.

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NASA suffered a mishap two years ago when a global warming satellite also destined to join the Earth-observation network crashed into the ocean near Antarctica after launching from the same kind of rocket that carried Glory. An accident board was formed to investigate and corrective action was taken to prevent future problems. A duplicate is now scheduled to fly from Vandenberg in 2013.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.