About 9:00am this morning I was online watching the live launch of OCO, the orbiting carbon observatory. It was launched at 9:55am and initially looked like a nice launch.

Within minutes the payload fairing failed to separate (The fairing is only required to reduce drag at low altitude) making the rocket too heavy to achieve the required orbit.

Hours passed and Taurus Launch Control were still trying to find out the resulting orbit… unfortunately it appears it only got as far as the Indian Ocean near Antarctica.

I’m sure more information will be made available as time progresses. Wikipedia is always a nice concise source for information.