Disappointment all around as the attempted launch of a climate-monitoring satellite failed early Friday morning from Vanderberg Air Force Base. From Mashable [1],
“This is especially bad news for Virginia-based Orbital Sciences Corp, makers of the Taurus XL rocket that lifted the spacecraft to near-orbit. According to the AP, a similar problem occurred in 2009 with a Taurus XL launch vehicle, where a fairing stayed on a satellite and the launch failed, with its satellite ending up in roughly the same place in the South Pacific near Antarctica.
Why is this a big deal? Besides the loss of $424 million of space hardware, Orbital Sciences is one of the private companies NASA is counting on to lift cargo to the International Space Station when the shuttles are retired.”
This launch failure will put a lot of pressure on Orbital Sciences. The reality is that space flight is still expensive. Orbital Sciences will have a problem if the perception becomes that it is “too expensive.” Gov. McDonnell has encouraged commercial space industry [2] in Virginia and he will, as any governor would, want successes in that area to show off. Those successes bring jobs, and high-tech jobs at that, which for Virginia is all positive.
Related:
From Nature [3]
Orbital’s news release [4] on the launch
Some figures from Orbital’s 2009 Annual Report [5]