Loss Of Orbiting Carbon Observatory A Blow To Examining Sources, Destinations Of Greenhouse Gas
NASA Goddard Deputy Director To Lead Probe Of OCO Glitch
An Orbital Sciences Corp. [ORB] Taurus XL rocket failed to orbit a NASA science satellite because the fairing on the rocket failed to separate.
NASA has been hoping that Orbital will become a major space transportation logistics services provider, hauling cargo to the International Space Station in the half decade (2010-2015) when NASA won’t have its own large cargo and crew craft for such missions.
Orbital and Space Technologies Corp. (SpaceX), under separate arrangements with NASA, aim to help fill the void.
Until this mishap, Orbital had a solid record, with only one mishap in more than 50 launches.
In the second failure, the extra weight of the fairing slowed the rocket so much that it didn’t insert the Orbiting Carbon Observatory satellite in the intended orbit, so that the satellite wound up crashing into the sea near Antarctica.
The incident prompted formation of a mishap investigation board, to probe why the fairing failed to separate. It also caused reviews to see if a similar problem could occur on other upcoming missions. (Please see story in this issue.)
Rick Obenschain, deputy director at Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., will lead the investigation board.
The board will have four other members, whom NASA will announce later. The board will gather information, analyze the facts, and identify the failure’s cause or causes and contributing factors. The board then will make recommendations for actions to prevent a similar incident.
Obenschain shares responsibility for executive leadership and overall direction and management of Goddard and its assigned programs and projects. He also is responsible for providing executive oversight and technical evaluation for developing and delivering Goddard space systems launch and operations.
Previously, Obenschain was appointed director of the Flight Projects Directorate in September 2004, and was responsible for the day-to-day management of more than 40 space and Earth science missions. He has held a number of project management positions at Goddard.