NASA investigators reveal findings on satellite loss

Investigators confirmed today that the protective nosecone surrounding a $273 million satellite failed to separate after launch earlier this year, causing the satellite to mostly burn up in the atmosphere and scatter surviving parts into the Pacific Ocean near Antarctica.

Less than three minutes into its Feb. 24 launch from Vandenburg Air Force Base in California, the Orbiting Carbon Observatory satellite's payload fairing did not break away as planned.

The extra weight kept the spacecraft from reaching orbit, ultimately dragging it and two stages of the four-stage Taurus XL rocket back to Earth and a watery grave.

The Mishap Investigation Board, led by Rick Obenschain, deputy director at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, identified four potential causes for the clamshell-like structure's failure to separate:

- A failure of the frangible joint subsystem. A frangible joint is an explosive device that provides instantaneous separation of flight vehicle structures while maintaining confinement of explosive debris.
- A failure in the electrical subsystem that prevented sufficient electrical current to initiate the required ordnance devices.
- A failure in the pneumatic system, which supplies pressure to thrusters which separate the fairing.
- A cord snagged on a frangible joint side rail nut plate.

The failure was a major setback to efforts to enhance understanding of climate change.

The satellite was the second lost by NASA on a Taurus rocket, whose only failure in seven prior flights came in September 2001. A $50 million ozone observer was destroyed then, in a mishap attributed to the rocket staging process.

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