This handout photo released by Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., shows the launch early Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2009, of a Taurus XL rocket equipped with NASA's Orbiting Carbon Observatory satellite which apparently failed to separate from the launch vehicle and splashed into the ocean. (AP Photo/ U.S. Air Force, Airman 1st Class Andrew Lee)
VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. " A rocket carrying a NASA global warming satellite has landed in the ocean near Antarctica after an early morning launch failure.
The mishap occurred Tuesday after the Taurus XL rocket carrying the Orbiting Carbon Observatory blasted off into the pre-dawn sky from California's Vandenberg Air Force Base.
Several minutes later, launch managers said the payload fairing, which shelters the satellite, apparently failed to separate from the launch vehicle.
An official with Orbital Sciences Corp., the rocket's maker, said the rocket splashed into the ocean.