The NASA Orbiting Carbon Observatory that we reported on yesterday which launched today has apparently failed.

The observatory satellite launched on schedule at 4:55am ET this morning in California but the fairing, which is the structure designed to protect the Orbiting Carbon Observatory as it blasts through the atmosphere, failed to separate from the satellite.

This resulted in the observatory being unable to maintain an orbit and consequently is currently somewhere in the ocean near Antarctica. Satellite launch fail.

The NASA Mishap Investigation Board is currently trying to work out what went wrong.