Posted on 06/30/2014 11:30:16 PM PDT by Jack Hydrazine
NASA's first spacecraft dedicated to measuring carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere, a critical new data-gathering project for scientists and policy-makers, is awaiting launch Tuesday morning on a Delta 2 rocket. Liftoff from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California is set for 2:56 a.m. PDT (5:56 a.m. EDT; 0956 GMT).
Rocket: Delta 2
Variant: 7320-10C
Payload: OCO 2
Date: July 1, 2014
Time: 2:56 a.m. PDT (0956 GMT)
Site: SLC-2, Vandenberg AFB, California
Watch the launch like at the link above or here or here or here or here starting at 12:45 a.m. PDT/3:45 a.m. EDT,
Launch Updates: To keep up to speed with updates to the launch countdown, dial the ULA launch hotline at 1-877-852-4321 or join the conversation at Facebook and Twitter.
Delta II OCO-2 Mission Brochure
Why bother, since it’s already settled science.
If it is like its predecessors, something will go wrong and the satellite will never produce usable data. Then the NASA Global Warming proponents will be able to continue their hoax without inconvenient data to trouble their efforts.
Some say things can’t smell their own gas.
First?
A few years ago I recall we tried to launch a C02 satellite.
It failed to reach orbital altitude.
Pretty sure it also launched from Vandenberg, due south, and failed around Chile.
Last I heard it was 0.04% of the atmosphere and if it was cut in half, all life on Earth would die.
Obvious in retrospect, but a huge shock when I first read that.
“Miracle Gro” to the rescue?
Measure what?
We already know the atmosphere is comprised of 350-390 parts per million.
Let’s just agree to a reasonable measurable goal of cutting the saturation to maybe 150PPM and then see what the results of that will be.
Deserts aren’t so bad...
Its going to ping when it goes over Gore’s mansion...
NASA suffered a major scientific — and financial — disaster in 2009 when a rocket carrying the original satellite plummeted into the waters off Antarctica minutes after soaring from Vandenberg Air Force Base along the central California coast.
After the 2009 failure, a team of experts appointed by NASA traced the problem to a piece of rocket hardware — the nose cone protecting the satellite — that did not separate as planned. The extra weight prevented Orbital Sciences Corp.’s Taurus XL rocket from reaching orbit.
Two years later, it happened again. Despite a design change, NASA’s Glory satellite was lost aboard another Taurus XL rocket. The mission was supposed to study solar radiation and airborne particles that reflect and trap sunlight.
The back-to-back fiascos led NASA to choose the Delta 2 rocket made by United Launch Alliance, a joint venture of Lockheed Martin and Boeing Co. The Delta 2 had faced an uncertain future after its main client, the U.S. Air Force, switched to the more powerful Delta 4.
This could be a really cool launch through the fog at Vandenburg... 4 minutes from now.
Live stream video. . .
http://www.ulalaunch.com/nasa.aspx
Launch cancelled 2 minutes before launch.
“HOLD HOLD HOLD!”
Countdown suspended less than a minute from launch due to “water flow issue” on the launch pad. Since there was only a 30 second window for launch at this time, it has been shut down.
Scrubbed at :46 to go, launchpad H2O problem...how much CO2 does a launch like this put into the atmosphere? Does the California Air Resources Board have to approve these launches? (Massive air pollution). Is it wrong to root against this misguided effort? Inquiring minds want to know!
Oh, I'm sure nothing but good will come from this...
The Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO) is a NASA satellite mission intended to provide global space-based observations of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2). The original spacecraft was lost in a launch failure on February 24, 2009, when the payload fairing of the Taurus rocket which was carrying it failed to separate during ascent.[1] The added mass of the fairing prevented the satellite from reaching orbit.[2] It subsequently re-entered the atmosphere and crashed into the Indian Ocean near Antarctica.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orbiting_Carbon_Observatory
Back to the NASA glory days, punching holes in the ozone layer to find out why the ozone layer was shrinking.
What are the odds that they will discover CO2 is worse than thought? Since CO2 is heavier than air I would think measurements from the Troposphere would be more meaningful.
There are probably hundreds of CO2 measuring stations around the earth (I used to tend one in the Azores)
How many billions are going to be wasted on this satellite?
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