I was just reading more about the rocket carrying Nanosail-D, the Falcon 1, apparently it's partially reusable launch vehicle and today was it's first operational launch, but there 2 previous test launches also failed. The company that built it is called SpaceX and is trying to reduce the cost of space flights by a factor of 10, obviously it's not working to well.
Also the rocket today was carrying the remains of 208 people, 1 of which was Star Treks James Doohan.