NASA Names Chief for Launch Failure Investigation

NASA has tapped a senior manager at its Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland to lead the investigation into Tuesday?s failed launch of a new global warming satellite, the space agency announced today.

Rick Obenschain, deputy director of the Greenbelt, Md.-based Goddard Space Flight Center, will spearhead a five-person mishap investigation board aimed at determining why NASA?s $273.4 million Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO) crashed into the ocean just minutes after its of early Tuesday liftoff.

An Orbital Sciences, Corp.-built Taurus XL rocket launched the OCO spacecraft into the predawn sky from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, but the rocket?s protective nosecone shroud failed to separate as planned about three minutes after liftoff. The failure prevented the rocket from reaching orbit and sent the OCO spacecraft plummeting into the ocean somewhere near Antarctica, NASA officials have said.

The four other members of Obenschain?s investigation board will be announced later as they are selected, NASA officials said.

?The board will gather information, analyze the facts, and identify the failure's cause or causes and contributing factors,? NASA said in a statement. ?The [Mishap Investigation Board] will make recommendations for actions to prevent a similar incident.?

The OCO spacecraft was NASA?s first Earth-watching satellite developed exclusively to map levels of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, to help determine humanity?s contribution to global warming. It was slated to lead a train of other Earth-monitoring satellites already in orbit to build a complete picture of the planet?s weather and climate changes.

Of the 30 billion tons of carbon dioxide produced each year, humans contribute about 8 billion tons ? primarily through the burning of fossil fuels, OCO researchers have said. While some of the gas is reabsorbed by Earth?s oceans, researchers hoped the OCO spacecraft would be able to identify where the rest is absorbed by the planet?s landmasses.

At the Goddard, Obenschain shares executive leadership, direction and management duties for the center and its programs and projects. His duties also include providing oversight and technical evaluations for the development and delivery of Goddard?s space systems launch and operations, NASA officials said.

During his NASA tenure, Obenschain has held a number of project management positions at Goddard. In 2004, NASA appointed him director of the Flight Projects Directorate, where he provided day-to-day management for more than 40 space and Earth science missions, agency officials said.

Obenschain has received NASA?s Distinguished Service Medal, Exceptional Service Medal, Equal Opportunity Medal and the Goddard center?s Award of Merit. He also received the von Braun award for excellence in space program management from the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, NASA officials said.

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