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WHEN the Glory satellite fell into the sea on Friday, it was just the latest setback for NASA鈥檚 climate science programme. The failed launch came hard on the heels of two other cancelled climate satellite missions.
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According to , director of NASA鈥檚 Earth Science Division, government cutbacks mean the agency is 鈥渘ot doing some important things鈥� 鈥� though he points out that 13 earth sciences missions are still scheduled for the next decade.
Glory was lost when the Taurus XL rocket carrying it to orbit developed a fault. A similar fault led to the loss of the Orbiting Climate Observatory in 2009.
Glory was set to measure the aerosol content of the atmosphere, vital data as aerosol effects are a key uncertainty in climate science. Freilich says the next scheduled satellite with Glory鈥檚 capabilities is PACE 鈥� but that will not launch until 2020. His team are seeing whether they could launch something sooner.