List of Failed Missions (Astronomy, Deep Space/Earth Science)

(missions by alphabetical order)

DART

• Mission Data: DART was to launch April 15th, 2005, from Vandenberg Air Force Base (VAFB) using a Pegasus XL rocket. It was a NASA (USA) mission. DART was part of NASA Space Launch Initiative. DART had to investigate automatic rendez-vous capabilities with another craft without any human guidance. DART stands for "Demonstration for Autonomous Rendezvous Technology". DART had to rendezvous with a target satellite, the Multiple Paths, Beyond-Line-of-Site Communications (MUBLCOM) satellite, performing several close proximity operations, such as moving toward and away from the satellite using navigation data provided by onboard sensors. Such a mission was to prove techniques useful for next space-vehicle systems requiring in-space assembly, services or other autonomous rendezvous operations. DART was to be boosted into a polar orbit approximately 472 miles by 479 miles by the Pegasus rocket, released from a Stargazer L-1011 aircraft at about 40,000 ft above the Pacific Ocean. DART was managed for NASA by the Marshall Space Flight Center
• Failure (Description and Cause(s)): after a successful launch on April 15th by a Pegasus rocket released from a Stargazer L-1011 aircraft, 100 miles offshore from Vandenberg AFB, Calif., DART sucessfully performed a series of rendezvous maneuvers until within 300ft from the target spacecraft. DART however placed itself in a retirement phase before completing all planned proximity operations. A NASA investigation board has been appointed (Apr. 22, 2005) to investigate the reasons for the mishap. DART launch had been postponed from a planned schedule last year to this new date. DART is bound to investigate automatic rendez-vous capabilities with a target satellite without any human guidance. DART was to launch last November 2004, as various reasons delayed the launch

Glory

• Mission Data: Glory was a mission aiming at a better knowledge of the Earth's energy balance through data collected about the aerosols and the black carbon particles in the atmosphere, leading to understand how the Sun irradiance affects the Earth's climate. Launch was from the Vandenberg AFB in California Friday, Mar. 4 at 5:09:45 a.m. EST, and a NASA mission, with a 48-second launch window, aboard an Orbital Sciences Taurus Rocket (launch pad SLC-576-E). Launch had been delayed from a scheduled February 23rd, 2011, at 2:10 a.m. PST
• Failure (Description and Cause(s)): the Glory mission failed to reach orbit, as telemetry indicated that the fairing atop the Taurus XL rocket did not separate as expected about three minutes after launch.

Nozomi (Planet B)

• Mission Data: Nozomi was a mission heading to orbit around Mars, for a study of Mars upper atmosphere, especially in its interaction with the solar wind. It was launched on July, 4th, 1998 (Kagoshima Space Center (KSC)). It was an ISAS (Japan) mission
  
• Failure (Description and Cause(s)): Nozomi was plagued with several troubles which, for example, had led to devise a new trajectory using two more Earth swing-bys. It was bound for Mars for mid-December 2003. As a Trajectory Correction Maneuver was needed on December, 9th 2003 to insert S/C into a Martian orbit, Japanese team was unable to overcome a short-circuit and to restore communications with the craft. Nozomi missed Mars by 555 mi (894 km) and continued its journey in the solar system. A controversy had arisen about the craft decontamination standards; Japanese has assessed probe's risk to one percent to hit Mars in case of the December, 9th TCM's failure, and to less than one percent it to fall upon Mars within twenty years of the launch

OCO (Orbiting Carbon Observatory)

• Mission Data: the mission was to launch on February 23rd, 2009, with a launch window 1:50-1:58 a.m. PST, aboard a Taurus rocket, from Vandenberg AFB (launch pad SLC 576-E). The Taurus rocket is a 4-stage, solid fuel rocket which is built by Orbital Sciences Corporation, and with a first launch having occurred in 1994. It can carry a 675 lbs (1,350 kg) payload into a low Earth orbit. The Taurus rocket is based on the Pegasus, the air-launched rocket by the same manufacturer. The OCO mission was aiming to collect precise global measurements of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the Earth's atmosphere, those data being used to a better knowledge of the natural processes and human activities inferring with the abundance and distribution of the greenhouse gas. The mission was performed under the supervision of the JPL
• Failure (Description and Cause(s)): as the launch had unfolded successfully, the fairing couldn't separate and the launcher and mission eventually splashed in the ocean near the Antarctic