Taurus XL fails to get NASA Glory into orbit

(UPDATED: 8:10 am EST) -- A NASA satellite bound to study earth's atmosphere failed to reach orbit today when it's payload fairing failed to separate three minutes after launch.

"The vehicle speed error is indicating under performance, which is expected due to a fairing not separating", Launch commentator Richard Haenke reported at five minutes into the flight.

Today's Taurus XL rocket launch is the third failure in the last four launches of the solid fueled rocket.

NASA's Glory spacecraft was to have joined several current satellites in orbit known as the A-Train as they research the composition of the earth's atmosphere, or "biosphere and climate", according to Goddard Space Flight Center.

Launch of an Orbital Sciences Taurus XL 3110 rocket with Glory occurred on time at 5:09:43 a.m. EST (2:09 a.m. local time) from space launch complex 576-East at Vandenberg, AFB in California.

This ninth flight of a Taurus rocket comes exactly two years following it's last flight which ended in failure when the payload fairing did not separate away from the craft minutes into the flight.

Five minutes into the ascent, reports began to filter in that the nose cone of the rocket had not separated on time.

"The flight was going well until the time of fairing separation", NASA launch commentator George Diller announced at the time. "We had data coming into the Mission Directors Center... that we did not have a successful fairing separation from the Taurus, and there was insufficient velocity with the fairing still on for the vehicle to achieve orbit."

The payload fairing is a white cone the top of the rocket which covered the 1,157 pound satellite, and protects it from the stresses of launch through the dense atmosphere.

"The fairing has considerable weight relative to the portion of the vehicle that's flying", John Brunschwyler of Orbital Sciences Corporation said after the 2009 Taurus loss. "So when it separates off, you get a jump in acceleration. We did not have that jump in acceleration.

The the four foot, 4 inch wide by seven foot long fairing should have split in two a fallen away. The fairing is nearly the same as those used on Orbital's air-launched Pegasus rockets from near Vandenberg.

The ninety-one foot tall rocket consists of four solid fueled stages.

The Thiokol-built first stage burns for the first 83 seconds of flight, followed by the second stage ignition and burn for the next 73 seconds of flight. The third and fourth stages burn at just over a minute each.

Glory was scheduled to separate later from Taurus' upper stage at 5:22 a.m. as it soared in a polar orbit.

Instead today, "All indications are that the satellite and rocket is in the southern Pacific Ocean somewhere", a dejected Taurus launch director Omar Baez of the Kennedy Space Center said this morning. "It's a very difficult situation we're in her," Baez stated a few minutes earlier.
In addition to Glory, three small cube science satellites were launched.

NASA's Educational Launch of Nanosatellite (ELaNa) is a program in which colleges and universities can fly their own experiment into low earth orbit using a CubeSat.

NASA told the crews of the International Space Station and shuttle Discovery as she laid docked 222 miles above earth.

"Sorry to hear that... that's unfortunate", commander Scott Kelly radioed back to Houston's Mission Control upon hearing the news.

"Let me just say that there's a great deal of emotional investment on the part of all the players on any spaceflight, but that's probably doubly so on a return-to-flight effort like this one," Ron Grabe, the general manager of Orbital's Launch Systems Group stated this morning.

Taurus XL countdown stopped; launch reset for Friday

The launch countdown of an Orbital Sciences Taurus rocket was stopped minutes before lift-off today due to a command issue to halt the launch if a true problem arose.

The Taurus XL was set to deliver a NASA atmospheric research satellite known as Glory into earth orbit from Vandenberg, AFB in California.

The count was stopped at 5:02 a.m. EST, at the T-7 minute, 41 second mark this morning due to the vehicle interface control console stating that the rocket was in a safe mode.

"A hold fire condition was noticed" at the T-12 minute point, "which basically means a safe condition was sent," assistant launch director Chuck Dovale said. He added that it was an external signal which said the rocket was in a safe configuration.

Dovale pointed out that when the issue arose, the launch team went to a back up computer but they received the same issue.

"We don't understand the problem at the moment," Dovale added, and that "trouble shooting is continuing" for the next few hours.

NASA has targeted launch for Friday at 5:09:43 a.m., once the launch team completes trouble shooting the source which placed the rocket in a safe mode.

NASA spacecraft poised to study earth's environment

Glory will study the earth's atmosphere over a three year period.

A NASA satellite is poised to begin a mission of understanding as it studies the earth's atmosphere and it's reaction to the Sun's output.

NASA's Glory spacecraft will join several current satellites in orbit known as the A-Train as they research the composition of the earth's atmosphere, or "biosphere and climate", according to Goddard Space Flight Center.

"Data from the Glory mission will allow scientists to better understand how the sun and tiny atmospheric particles called aerosols affect Earth's climate," NASA's George Diller stated from the launch site.

Two science instruments aboard Glory will be trained on several layers of the atmosphere, the Total Irradiance Monitor (TIM) and the Aerosol Polarimetry Sensor (APS).

Built by the University of Colorado, TIM will be pointed toward the Sun as it measure just how much solar energy is emitted and passed into the atmosphere of our planet.

Meanwhile, APS will be trained on the measurements and identity of the aerosols which collect and pass into the upper layers of the atmosphere, including dust and dirt from storms and black carbons.

Using a rotating mirror and six small telescopes, the APS will be used to "collect visible, near infrared, and short-wave infrared data", Goddard added.

Both instruments will be activated about four weeks following launch. The first data samples will then be received the next day at NASA's Goddard near Greenbelt, Maryland.

Every sixteen days of the spacecraft's multi-year mission, Glory will shift it's orbit every 233 revolutions of the earth as it sweeps and scans the atmosphere.

The Afternoon Train (A-Train) is a satellite constellation of seven science spacecrafts which travel in close proximity with each other as they circle the earth once every 100 minutes. Glory will become the sixth of the seven planned.

Launch of an Orbital Sciences Taurus XL 3110 rocket with Glory is set for Wednesday at 5:09:43 a.m. EST (2:09 a.m. local time) from space launch complex 576-East at Vandenberg, AFB in California. The exact launch time is set for the middle of a 48 second launch window.

This ninth flight of a Taurus rocket comes exactly two years following it's last flight which ended in failure when the payload fairing did not separate away from the craft minutes into the flight.

The ninety-one foot tall rocket consists of four solid fueled stages.

The Thiokol-built first stage will burn for the first 83 seconds of flight, followed by the second stage ignition and burn for the next 73 seconds of flight. The third and fourth stages burn at just over a minute each.

Glory will separate from Taurus' upper stage at 5:22 a.m. as it soars in a polar orbit.

Glory weighs 1,157 pounds (525 kilograms) and once in space, the satellite will measure 6 feet across from solar array tip to solar array tip and nearly five feet long.

In addition to Glory, three small cube science satellites will be launched.

NASA's Educational Launch of Nanosatellite (ELaNa) is a program in which colleges and universities can fly their own experiment into low earth orbit using a CubeSat.

NASA satellite mission fails in Launch Mishap

A NASA satellite design to observe and collect data on the earth's emission of carbon dioxide failed to reach its planned orbit following liftoff this morning from Vandenberg, AFB in California.

Launch occured aboard an Orbital Sciences Taurus XL rocket at 4:55:30 am EST.

Liftoff via NASA-TV showed a normal launch, as the solid fueled rocket burned through it's four stages during the ascent. However, launch operations came on suddenly near the end of powered flight calling, "...it appears we have had a contingency with the OCO mission ... enact the mission mishap preparedness plan."

Moments later, it was confirmed by launch control that the nose fairing did not seperate from around the O.C.O. spacecraft. Thus, the spacecraft had too much weight to achieve orbit.

This NASA image above shows the O.C.O. spacecraft inside the suspect nose fairing.

8:10 am ET UPDATE: During a news conference taking place right now here at Vandenberg, members of the O.C.O. team announced that the O.C.O. spacecraft, "landed just short of Antartica [and] in the [southern] Atlantic Ocean."

An investigation board will be announced in the coming weeks. Another Taurus XL launch is planned for later in 2009, and the Taurus XL team stated that that flight has not been impacted.

This was the second launch failure of the Taurus XL in it's eight flights.