What goes up...NASA's new climate satellite, seen here at launch early this morning, didn't make it to orbit.

RODALE NEWS, EMMAUS, PA—The climate satellite that NASA hoped would monitor the planet’s carbon dioxide as it orbited the Earth crashed shortly after launching early Tuesday morning, officials said. Carbon dioxide is one of the greenhouse gases linked to global warming, and levels have increased significantly over the last 50 years because of human activities like burning coal and cutting down forests.

THE DETAILS: Preliminary reports indicate the satellite’s “fairing”—a clamshell structure that encapsulates the satellite as it moves through the atmosphere—did not separate at the right time, making the Orbiting Carbon Observatory satellite too heavy to continue into orbit. It crashed into the Pacific Ocean near Antarctica shortly after its 4:55 a.m. EST liftoff from California’s Vandenberg Air Force Base.

Researchers had high hopes for the $278 million project, expecting it to “find places on the planet where carbon dioxide is being added to the atmosphere, and also its sinks—where it is being removed,” Eric Ianson, NASA’s program executive for OCO, explained in a blog post earlier this month. Scientists were looking for clues as to where carbon dioxide goes when it’s released and isn’t registered in the atmosphere.

WHAT IT MEANS: The now-defunct satellite could have provided valuable data to help improve climate models used in research. Still, we don’t need a satellite to tell us about some major carbon sinks that have already been identified: old-growth forests, organic soil, oceans, and bio-diverse hotspots. These places keep CO2 out of the atmosphere where it’s warming the planet to dangerous levels, so we need to protect and support them.

Make better everyday decisions to protect and promote our valuable carbon sinks: