Orbital Sciences Taurus XL - OCO (Failure)

The Taurus XL launch vehicle carrying OCO (Orbiting Carbon Observatory) rises above the trees about 30 seconds into the flight.

Soaring skywards!

90 seconds into the flight: Stage 0 burnout... Stage 0 separation... Stage 1 ignition...

Reaching its suborbital apogee NASA's $273 million OCO satellite starts descending to crash into the ocean near Antarctica shortly after liftoff. Telemetry indicates that the fairing failed to separate when commanded.

The smoke cloud left over after launch. Not too visible at night.