Click here to view the embedded video.

The video is pretty shaky so is every version out there.  The Glory Mission was to measure aerosols in the atmosphere and to measure how much solar radiation the atmosphere receives from the sun.

“Was” is the key word because the mission was aborted because of a malfunction that caused the fairing not to release.  It’s not the first time either. in 2009 the Orbiting Carbon Observatory riding the same model Taurus rocket met the same fate and in fact design changes to the joints holding the fairing in place were made.

Oh well and that’s about all I am going to say about that. 

On a brighter note The United Launch Alliance (sounds very sci-fi-esque and I like it) successfully launched the Second Orbital Test Vehicle also known as the X 37B.  The launch was webcast live and went off with out a hitch, very impressive.  Apparently owing to the type of mission there is no replay available.  Pity too, because I did watch and it was spectacular.  Here’s a little background on the X 37 available on the web, might be good to take it with a grain of salt.

The orbital information is not being released but there was quite an effort to spot the spacecraft during the first launch nearly a year ago.  Should be fun to see if the cat and mouse game occurs this time my guess is: of course it will.