It was meant to answer some of the biggest questions about the true scale of global warming.

But Nasa's $270 million climate change satellite failed to get into orbit yesterday – sending years of work by Leicester's space scientists down the drain.

A rocket malfunction sent the Orbiting Carbon Observation satellite crashing out of the sky.

It is thought to have plummeted into the sea near Antarctica.

Academics at the University of Leicester's Space Research Centre said the failure was devastating.

Professor of atmospheric science, Paul Monks, said: "This is an absolute disaster – it is a tragedy.

"This mission was going to revolutionise the way we see the Earth in terms of where carbon dioxide comes from and where it goes. We could have been entering a new era of knowledge.

"You cannot estimate the huge amount of work that goes into the development of these instruments – you are looking at five to 10 years work."

The satellite was the first launched by Nasa to measure carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere.

Scientists in Leicester would have shared the data, to help them build a better understanding of the causes and effects of global warming.

Most of the Earth's surface would have been mapped at least once every 16 days during the two-year mission.

The work would have highlighted specific regions where natural and man-made sources were producing carbon dioxide.

It would also have revealed areas where oceans and plants were removing CO from the atmosphere.

University of Leicester researcher Dr Hartmut Bösch was part of team working at Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in Pasadena, California, where he helped technicians develop the instrument which would have measured CO levels.

He was at Vandenberg Air Force Base, in California, yesterday morning to witness the launch.

Nasa officials said the part of the rocket covering the satellite on top of the launcher had failed to separate.

Tim Stevenson, chief engineer at Leicester University's space research centre, said the Taurus XL rocket had a history of problems.

He said: "In the past eight launches, the Taurus has failed twice. More modern launchers tend to have a success rate of about 90 per cent."

He said Nasa would have chosen the less-reliable rocket because of cost, but said he remained optimistic the project could be salvaged.

"Usually, Nasa has enough hardware to build another using flight spares," he said.

"It will have to spend money on it, but if it is serious about this, it will do that again."

Nasa said it was investigating the cause of the launch failure.

A similar mission – the Greenhouse Gas Observing Satellite – was launched from Japan on January 23.

University of Leicester academics said they would now use data from that mission for their research.