NASA Appoints Lead Investigator for Launch Mishap

The investigation of the failed Orbiting Carbon Observatory launch continues as NASA appoints Rick Obenschain, deputy director at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., to lead the investigation board. The Mishap Investigation Board, or MIB, will have four other members. NASA will announce the names of additional members as they become available. The board will gather information, analyze the facts, and identify the failure's cause or causes and contributing factors. The MIB 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 the development and delivery for 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.

Obenschain is the recipient of NASA's Distinguished Service Medal, Exceptional Service Medal, Outstanding Leadership Medal, Equal Opportunity Medal, and Goddard's Award of Merit. In 1995, he received the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics von Braun Award for Excellence in Space Program Management.

The Taurus XL rocket, which lifted off at 4:55 a.m. (EST) from Vandenberg Air Force Base, CA., carrying the Orbiting Carbon Observatory for NASA, did not achieve orbit. Preliminary indications are that the payload fairing on the Taurus XL vehicle failed to separate. The fairing is a clamshell structure which encapsulates the satellite as it travels through the atmosphere.

NASA will inform the public once a root cause of the incident is determined.