The mission costs $273 million and was supposed to last two years. It was over in 17 minutes. The satellite named Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO) did not have enough force to make orbit after its launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

The satellite carries sensors that were meant to take a census of carbon dioxide emissions all throughout the world. The sensors would have identified the sources of carbon dioxide and where they are stored after they pull out of the atmosphere. Each year, thirty billion tons of CO2 derived from fossil fuels are released into the air. Half of it all remains afloat and the other half disappears to no one knows where.

The OCO, launched on February 24, has three spectrometers to probe the atmospheric blanket, as well as calculate how much CO2 a power plant has emitted or CO2 as it hovers above a motorway. This would have allowed climatologists to provide more reliable data to improve theoretical models with which to explain global warming. All present discussions revolve around the weakness of these models that have been found inadequate to decipher the situation and extrapolate the future trend.

The OCO failure will certainly not sit well with the Obama administration that looks to the resolution of environmental issues with urgency. The failed satellite was unable to get into space for reasons that hark back to the early days of space exploration. Its solid propellant was found to have been larger than expected, preventing it from carrying its precious load in hundreds of kilograms to a fixed high pass 704 kilometers above the earth.

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Via CNN