Oco Loss A Setback For Climate Scientists

摘要

The Feb. 24 rocket failure that sent NASA's Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO) into the ocean deprives climate scientists of a key set of measurements meant to bridge data collected by a seven-year-old satellite and a more advanced spacecraft not expected to launch for at least several years. OCO was to have spent at least the next two years mapping the Earth's carbon dioxide concentrations in unprecedented detail. But for reasons still being investigated, the payload shroud designed to protect the $273.4 million spacecraft during liftoff failed to properly separate, preventing the rocket from releasing OCO before falling back to Earth. The glitch occurred just minutes after OCO's Taurus XL rocket blasted off from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.