Launch of Orbiting Carbon Observatory Fails

On Feb 25, 4:35*am, bob haller wrote:
On Feb 24, 9:55 pm, BradGuth wrote:

On Feb 24, 9:25 am, "Mark R. Whittington"
wrote:

The Orbiting Carbon Observatory, designed to measure how carbon
dioxide gases in the Earth atmosphere, was launched early Tuesday on a
Taurus rocket. However, due to separation problem in the satellite's
protective fairing, the launch was a failure.

http://www.associatedcontent.com/art..._of_orbiting_c....

Better luck next time. At least this time it didn't explode just
above the launch pad and cause several hundred other millions in
collateral damage and cover-thy-butt expenses.

~ BG

or explode in LEO adding to debris impacts espically around ISS

too bad nasa doesnt do what they did in the past .... build 2 of each
satellite in case one doesnt make it, or fails early

They (NASA) obfuscated again. This wasn’t merely a failed clamshell
fiasco.
http://spaceweather.com/
http://www.sbig.com/allsky/VAFB/VAFB...bservatory.gif
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pulVvfZVe4o

0nanimus:
“No failure footage?! Heard some very plausible explanations from NASA
types, news, gov and the like. I guess, once again, we'll all have to
take them at their word.”

Just like before, there’s too much missing launch command audio. Why
not share all of their public funded launch data, so that we can at
least appreciate what parts and of those responsible worked according
to plan. Perhaps in this case, all of our DoD, USAF and CIA/NSA
missile and intruder aircraft tracking scopes were busy looking at
Mars smut.

Exactly how much payload and clamshell shaking was going on?

Recovery of the payload along with its clamshell will likely show
nylon tywraps or safety-wire still on those mission critical release
clamps.

~ BG

On Feb 25, 4:35*pm, Brian Thorn wrote:
On Wed, 25 Feb 2009 11:14:25 -0800 (PST),
wrote:

too bad nasa doesnt do what they did in the past .... build 2 of each
satellite in case one doesnt make it, or fails early

That was only for planetary spacecraft and not earth orbiters

TDRSS: TDRS-East, TDRS-West, TDRS-Spare

These weren't built as backups, they were built as successors because
the satellites were only certified for 10 year lifetimes (and it has
been 23 years since first launch.) TDRSS needs two satellites all the
time, but the first three had trouble (TDRS-A launch malfunction and
service-life reduction, TDRS-B destroyed, TDRS-C fried by a solar
flare.) The Spare was usually the oldest TDRS that had just been
replaced by a new TDRS.

The newest TDRS satellites are modified commercial comsats, which made
them fairly easy to procure without incurring exhorbitant costs.

That said, I'd wager an OCO-2 gets built, or at least its instruments
get rebuilt and added to another satellite.

Brian

A few months befo
Rocket's maker Alliant Techsystems, or ATK
Scary Video of NASA Rocket Exploding Seconds After Launch
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gL1xUWgBlFw

The Alliant Tech Systems ALV X-1 was carrying the HYBOLT experiment
designed to "obtain unique high-speed flight data for fundamental
boundary layer transition flow physics", plus the SOAREX payload which
should have collected "data for atmospheric re-entry technology".

~ BG

In sci.space.policy message
, Wed, 25 Feb 2009 18:35:23, Brian Thorn
posted:

That said, I'd wager an OCO-2 gets built, or at least its instruments
get rebuilt and added to another satellite.

To be chemically sound, the "Orbiting" should be dropped from the name
of the second one.


OCO was considered worth spending, IIRC, some $280M, of which some tens,
for operation, will not be needed. Of the rest, a fair proportion will
have been for design and development, as opposed to manufacture,
testing, and launch. A matching replacement build, for which the launch
ought to be gratis, should therefore be considered well worth-while and
comparatively quick, especially if spares for instruments exist.

An outline plan to be followed in the event of a possible launcher
failure should always be available, whether it be to try again, start on
a new design, or abandon the idea.

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