Jul 17 2009
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(New page: NASA announced that the MIB led by Arthur F. “Rick” Obenschain had completed its report about the cause of the unsuccessful 24 February 2009 launch of the OCO and released a summary of...)
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NASA announced that the MIB led by Arthur F. “Rick” Obenschain had completed its report about the cause of the unsuccessful 24 February 2009 launch of the OCO and released a summary of its findings and recommendations. The MIB did not make the complete text of the official report public because it contained information protected by U.S. International Traffic in Arms Regulations and company-sensitive proprietary information. The board’s report verified that the Taurus launch vehicle’s fairing—a clamshell structure that encapsulated the satellite as it traveled through the atmosphere—had failed to separate upon command, preventing the craft from reaching its planned orbit. The craft had crashed into the ocean near Antarctica minutes after launching from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The board had identified four possible causes of the fairing failure—a failure of the frangible-joint subsystem, a failure in the electrical subsystem, a failure in the pneumatic system, or a cord caught on a frangible-joint siderail nut plate. The board had made recommendations to prevent future problems associated with those four hardware components.
NASA, “NASA Releases Orbiting Carbon Observatory Accident Summary,” news release 09-163, 17 July 2009, http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2009/jul/HQ_09-163_OCO.html (accessed 10 August 2011); NASA, “Overview of the Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO) Mishap Investigation Results for Public Release,” http://www.nasa.gov/pdf/369037main_OCOexecutivesummary_71609.pdf (accessed 16 August 2011); Alicia Chang for Associated Press, “Hardware Problem Blamed on NASA Satellite Crash,” 17 July 2009.
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