SpaceX and NASA are forming a board to jointly investigate the problem that led to last week's engine failure during the Falcon 9 launch from Cape Canaveral.

The primary objective of the mission succeeded, with SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft delivering 882 pounds of cargo to the International Space Station – including real ice cream, not that freeze-dried stuff at the museum – but the engine failure did lead to a problem with a secondary payload onboard Dragon. Thankfully, no ice cream was harmed. But an onboard satellite wasn't so lucky.

"This board will methodically analyze all data in an effort to understand what occurred to engine 1 during liftoff of the CRS-1 mission on Sunday, October 7," according to a statement from SpaceX's Katherine Nelson. "While Falcon 9 was designed for engine out capability and the Dragon spacecraft has successfully arrived at the space station, SpaceX is committed to a comprehensive examination and analysis of all launch data, with the goal of understanding what happened and how to correct it prior to future flights."

Orbcomm, a satellite messaging service company, says its prototype satellite that was being carried in the unpressurized section of the Dragon did not make it to the proper orbit needed to operate as planned. The New Jersey company says it did not have enough propellant onboard the satellite to successfully adjust the orbit and the satellite has fallen out of space and was declared a total loss as it burned up during re-entry into earth's atmosphere.

"Had Orbcomm been the primary payload on this mission, as planned for the upcoming launches," the company said in a statement, "we believe the OG2 prototype would have reached the desired orbit."

Despite writing off the satellite and filing a claim for the $10 million insurance policy, the company says it did manage to gather some useful data. The satellite remained operational for a short time, with the solar arrays deployed and the engineering teams on the ground able to communicate with the OG2.

SpaceX has a contract to launch all 18 Orbcomm satellites on two different missions in 2013 and 2014. As a secondary payload on the current NASA mission, Orbcomm accepted a secondary priority on the flight.

The small, 383-pound satellite was unable to be placed in the proper orbit because the failure of one of the nine Merlin engines on the Falcon 9 meant SpaceX could not reignite the engines as was needed due to safety constraints imposed by NASA regarding the ISS.

"The goal of this mission was to transport cargo to the International Space Station for NASA," according to a statement from SpaceX. "Orbcomm requested that SpaceX carry one of their small satellites (weighing a few hundred pounds, vs. Dragon at over 12,000 pounds) on this flight so that they could gather test data before we launch their full constellation next year."

SpaceX says Orbcomm knew their satellite was a secondary payload and the ability to insert it into a higher orbit in the event of a problem was tentative.

"The higher the orbit, the more test data they can gather, so they requested that we attempt to restart and raise altitude. NASA agreed to allow that, but only on condition that there be substantial propellant reserves, since the orbit would be close to the space station."

Meanwhile, the Dragon successfully berthed with the ISS and the crew was able to start unpacking the cargo a day earlier than planned. Before launch there had been a lot of talk about the possibility of ice cream being added to the Dragon manifest as there was some extra mass capacity available due to the low-density cargo that was aboard. And as you can see in the video above, the real ice cream arrived safe and sound, and was a treat for the crew on board the ISS.