How did the carbon industry - coal and oil - manage to sabotage NASA’s Carbon Orbiting Observatory?

The oil and coal industries spent $427 million in the first six months of 2008 in political contributions, lobbying expenditures and advertising to oppose climate action. It seems that paying someone to sabotage NASA’s Carbon Orbiting Observatory would cost next to nothing in comparison. NASA’s Carbon Orbiting Observatory would have answered any remaining questions as to the processes of the continuing buildup of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. CO2 levels in the atmosphere now stand at 387 parts per million (ppm), up almost 40% since the industrial revolution and the highest for at least the last 650,000 years.