An artist's impression of how the ill-fated Orbiting Carbon Observatory would have looked in orbit. The loss of the satellite will set climate research back, says experts.
Credit: NASA/JPL
Dovale said all indications were that all stages of the launch vehicle burned, so there was no threat to the environment from the toxic hydrazine fuel on board.
An investigation board would be formed to determine the "probable cause" of the failure, he said.
Michael Freilich, the director of NASA's science division, said it was unclear how long it might take to field a replacement for the OCO, which took eight years to develop.
Devastating blow
It was NASA's first spacecraft dedicated to studying carbon dioxide, though not the first in orbit: on January 23 Japan launched the world's first satellite dedicated to monitoring greenhouse gas emissions.
"The science is moving forward so it's difficult to put a precise time delay on how quickly in the future we would be able to realise the understanding that OCO would have given us, having succeeded," Freilich said.
The Japanese mission aims to help scientists measure the density of carbon dioxide and methane from almost the entire surface of the Earth, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) said.
Japanese hopes
A Japanese-made H-2A rocket carrying the Greenhouse Gases Observing Satellite (GOSAT) blasted off from Tanegashima, a small island in southern Japan.
The satellite is collecting data from 56,000 locations around the world, a dramatic increase from the 282 observation points available as of last October, JAXA said.
Japan hopes the mission will provide governments with useful data as they come under pressure to meet their 2008 to 2012 Kyoto Protocol goal of cutting greenhouse gas emissions.
