Crashing Satellite Goes Right Where It’s Needed

The wild and weird are not limited to the weather itself; a strange coincidence has occurred thanks to a misfired rocket.

In the early morning hours of Tuesday, February 24, a rocket lifted off from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.  The payload was the Orbiting Carbon Observatory, a satellite that was to assist in monitoring climate change.  “Was” is the key word there; a protective device failed to detach from the rocket itself, causing the entire thing to end up in the ocean off Antarctica.

Meanwhile, on Wednesday, February 25, a report was released by a panel of scientists…indicating that the previously held belief that only the Antarctic Peninsula was warming is incorrect; the whole continent is undergoing warming.

Of all the places for a doomed, climate monitoring satellite to land…maybe there’s still a way to use it!