Failures | mysite

1. Challenger

The year was 1986. Schoolteacher Christa McAuliffe has the opportunity most could only dream of: She has been chosen to be aboard the Challenger's most recent mission into space, making her the first teacher to brave the final frontier. With six other chosen astronauts, The ship's crew would be part of Challenger's purpose as a test vehicle for NASA on space's stress and heat on shuttles. Millions would be watching from around the US, including her own classroom of students.
On January 28th, 1986, after months of rigorous training, the crew blasted off. They had 73 seconds left. 1 minute and 15 seconds after liftoff, boosters are a critical part of reaching space. But when the boosters commenced, the unthinkable happened. One of the boosters failed and malfunctioned. It's effects were tremendous. Almost immediately, the entire ship exploded, killing every member aboard and the ship itself. The live feed of the accident was caught on live TV, right in front of millions of viewers. When tragedies like this transpire, it moves the human soul. NASA personnel have been quoted on saying, "Any astronaut who in the performance of his (or her) duties has distinguished himself (or herself) by exceptionally meritorious efforts and contributions to the welfare of the Nation and mankind." To this day, the Challenger disaster is arguably NASA's most famous mistake.

2. Columbia

On Febuary 1st, 2003, 17 years after the Challenger disaster, NASA's Columbia was reentering the Earth's atmosphere. But by about 9:00 am that morning, TV stations were covering footage of the Columbia breaking up in the Earth's atmosphere. By that evening, the ships crew were officially declared dead. What happened? During the launch of the Columbia on January 16th, all seemed to go smoothly. Yet a video of the launch seemed to show that "A piece of foam fell from a "bipod ramp" that was part of a structure that attached the external tank to the shuttle. (The video showed the foam) striking the Columbia's left wing (space.com)." It was later found that upon the ship's reentry, the gases in the atmosphere bled into the left wing and interfered with it's contents, resulting in the loss of life for all 7 crew members aboard. The wreck was quite massive. In fact, only 40% of Columbia was officially found by NASA. "The search for debris took weeks, as it was shed over a field of some 2,000 square miles (5,180 square kilometers) in east Texas alone (space.com)."
The catch is this: This problem with foam, in relation to NASA's space shuttles, had been known for years already at this time. NASA "Came under intense scrutiny in Congress and in the media for allowing the situation to continue (space.com)." Since then, NASA has given over $25 million dollars to the families of each member of the Columbia crew, despite no lawsuits or other legal action from them.

3. Mars Climate Orbiter (Metric Mistake)

"A disaster investigation board reports that NASA’s Mars Climate Orbiter burned up in the Martian atmosphere because engineers failed to convert units from English to metric (wired.com)." NASA built the Mars Climate Observer with the hope that it would be the first weather satellite on another planet. It cost $125 million dollars to make. But on September 23rd, 1999, it's would-be first day on the job, the satellite failed to fall into a stable orbit and burned up in Mar's atmosphere. NASA, after some digging, released that although the satellite thruster's force had to be calculated in pounds, a different piece of software had took the numbers using Newtons. NASA had forgot to convert the Imperial Standard System to the Metric.
Richard Cook, the then project manager for Mars exploration projects at NASA, said “The units thing has become the lore, the example in every kid’s textbook from that point on...Everyone was amazed we didn’t catch it.”