Orbiting Carbon Observatory mission fails during launch

In 2007, according to NASA, the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere was approximately 383 parts per million, compared with 315 ppm in 1958 and 280 ppm three centuries earlier before the start of the Industrial Revolution. The space agency says that of all the carbons added to the atmosphere since the mid-1700s, about 40 percent has remained there, about 30 percent seems to have ended up in the oceans, and the remaining 30 percent ended up somewhere on land.

That "somewhere" is the big question mark; it's what NASA refers to as the "missing" carbon sink -- a sink in this case being someplace where carbon dioxide has been removed from the atmosphere and stored. Measurements from the OCO satellite were to be combined with data from other satellites, from aircraft, and from ground stations to help determine where exactly, and how efficiently, the carbon dioxide is being absorbed in land sinks.