Failure hits Nasa's 'CO2 hunter'

"Nasa's first dedicated mission to measure carbon dioxide from space has failed following a rocket malfunction. Officials said the fairing - the part of the rocket which covers the satellite on top of the launcher - had not separated properly. Officials said the spacecraft crashed into the ocean near Antarctica (due to the extra mass of the fairing). The $270m mission was launched on a Taurus XL - the smallest ground-launched rocket currently in use by the US space agency." ~BBC The fairing is used to protect the satellite against air (wind) during ascent through the atmosphere. It is separated as soon as there is almost zero atmosphere, this decreases the mass and therefore increases the acceleration. They didn't see the increase in acceleration and concluded the fairing had failed. The separation of stages, fairings, engines etc is generally done with pyrotechnic switches/bolts/valves or mechanical springs. It's a simple device that fails surprisingly often in space flight. This is another disappointment for climate science, CryoSat failed in 2005. They are rebuilding CryoSat, not sure whether they will do the same with OCO. I suggest they use the cheap and most reliable Russian/ESA Soyuz launcher next time.