Science and Health

NASA names board members for Glory's failure investigation

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2011-03-10 11:03

WASHINGTON -- NASA has selected the members of the board that will investigate the cause of the launch failure for earth-observation satellite Glory, the US space agency said in a statement released on Wednesday.

Bradley Flick, director of the Research and Engineering Directorate at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, will lead the mishap investigation board, according to the statement.

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The board has six other voting members and an ex-officio member, who assures board activity conforms to NASA procedural requirements.

The board began its investigation Wednesday. Members will gather information, analyze the facts, identify the failure's cause or causes and identify contributing factors. The board will make recommendations to the NASA administrator to prevent similar incidents.

NASA's Glory mission ended Friday after the spacecraft failed to reach orbit following its launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. According to NASA, telemetry indicated the fairing, a protective shell atop the satellite's Taurus XL rocket, did not separate as expected.

Glory was intended to improve NASA's understanding of how the sun and tiny atmospheric particles called aerosols affect Earth's climate.