Posted: Fri, Feb 22, 2013, 5:49 AM ET (1049 GMT)
An investigation into the loss of a NASA climate satellite launched nearly two years ago failed to turn up a most probable cause for the failure, according to a report released this week. NASA's Glory satellite launched on a Taurus XL rocket in March 2011, but failed to reach orbit when the rocket's payload fairing did not separate during ascent. A review of the failure confirmed that the fairing's failure to separate prevented the satellite from reaching orbit, but could not determine what caused the separation failure, given the limited data available. The previous Taurus launch, also of a NASA satellite, in 2009, also failed because of a problem with the payload fairing separation system.

Related Links:

•  AP article
•  Flight International article
•  NASA press release