← all shorts

Event

Mars Climate Orbiter Mishap Investigation Board

A group of seven individuals in formal attire sits around a long conference table in a dimly lit room, with papers and microphones in front of them, suggesting a serious meeting or investigation.

The seven-member panel NASA convened on 24 September 1999, the day after contact was lost, to determine why the Orbiter had been destroyed. It delivered a phase-one report in November 1999 identifying the pound-force versus newton-second mismatch as the proximate cause and the agency's faster-better-cheaper management culture as the underlying one. Its recommendations reshaped interface-verification procedures across NASA.

Mentioned in 1 article