NASA Announces Mishap Board Members for OCO Investigation
Artist concept of NASA's Orbiting Carbon Observatory. Image credit: NASA/JPL
March 03, 2009
PASADENA, Calif. – NASA has selected the members of the board that will
investigate the unsuccessful launch of the Orbiting Carbon Observatory on
Feb. 24. Rick Obenschain, deputy director at NASA's Goddard Space Flight
Center in Greenbelt, Md., will lead the mishap investigation board.
The board consists of four other voting members:
-- Jose Caraballo, safety manager at NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va.
-- Patricia Jones, acting chief of the Human Systems Integration Division in
the Exploration Technology Directorate at NASA's Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, Calif.
-- Richard Lynch, Aerospace Systems Engineering, Goddard Space Flight Center
-- Dave Sollberger, deputy chief engineer of the NASA Launch Services Program at NASA's
Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The ex officio member is Ruth Jones, Safety and Mission Assurance manager at NASA's Marshall
Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. The ex officio member assures board activity conforms
to NASA procedural requirements.
The board began its investigation March 3. The members will gather information, analyze the
facts and identify the failure's cause or causes and contributing factors. The board will
make recommendations for actions to prevent a similar incident.
The Orbiting Carbon Observatory satellite failed to reach orbit after its 1:55 a.m. PST
liftoff Feb. 24 from California's Vandenberg Air Force Base.
For information about the Orbiting Carbon Observatory failed launch and investigation,
visit: http://www.nasa.gov/oco .
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., has managed the Orbiting Carbon Observatory
mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. JPL is managed for NASA by the
California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.
Media contact: Katherine Trinidad 202-358-1100
NASA Headquarters, Washington
katherine.trinidad@nasa.gov
2009-036
