This weekend there was a lot of discussion about who would be tweeting at the oscars, what peopling where saying online. Last weekend it was the same thing with the NBA All-Star game (particularly Dwight Howard for Adidas). Well Monday night I followed a live event although not as sexy.

Sitting on my couch at 1:44 am, thinking I shouldn’t have taken that 3 hour nap at 7pm; my mindless ESPN watching was interrupted by a tweet from @NASA: “OCO launch update: Liftoff is now set for 4:55 EST. Catch it on www.nasa.gov/ntv“. This was a lot more interesting than watching the rerun segment of sportscenter for the 4th time straight.

OCO stands for “Orbiting Carbon Observatory”. The mission as described on its site is to: “After launch, the OCO mission will collect precise global measurements of carbon dioxide (CO₂) in the Earth’s atmosphere. Scientists will analyze OCO data to improve our understanding of the natural processes and human activities that regulate the abundance and distribution of this important greenhouse gas…….” So I shot off the TV and started intently watching the 320 x 240 feed. The video was not that great, but the audio was perfect. The system checks and pre launch activities added to the excitement. I tweeted a couple comments about the activity. Then I twitpic’d a shot of the lift off. To my suprise someone re-broadcast my tweet. Then it dawned on me to see if other people where following the launch. I went to Twitter Search and was suprised at the amount of people who where following it. There were people who were watching it online as well as people who were able to see it overhead. It just made the entire event that much more exciting. Check out the NASA search results here.

Unfortunately, what you will hear about the project is how it failed…About 3 quarters of the way thru the launch, launch command called for the contingency plan to be implemented, “Nobody leave the room, nobody call out.”. A little while later they say that, “The faring did not separate from the spacecraft”. A press conference will convene in 2 hours…The excitement of the event was immediately replaced with a feeling of disappointment. I think my emotions were heightened (good and bad) because of sharing it with these other individuals. Unfortunately the mission failed. Unfortunately not enough people pay attention to what NASA does (we pay for this!!!). One positive, we have access to watch events like this.

One other interesting aspect of this whole event. Some people will read up on the events and news of Monday’s launch. It is a unique experience to follow it live as it happens. I will be watching more NASA launches in the future. Hopefully more people watch these events. Hopefully more of them will be successful. #FAIL!

Update: Launch Archive and Press Conference

I have attached the video of the launch for your viewing pleasure. I have also included the follow up press conference to why the mission failed.

Part one of the briefing.

And if you are still awake. Part 2 of the briefing.

Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite

Tags: NASA, OCO Project, twitter