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    Re: 'Programming error' caused Russian rocket failure - Yahoo! News
    From: James N Wilson
    Date: 2010 Dec 7, 20:05 -0800

    Frank:
    
    My first spacecraft launch in 1962 was dumped into the ocean because of a
    software error. A missing hyphen! The software was supposed to detect an
    out-of-lock situation from the ground guidance system and disable
    commands until normal communications were established. The system had
    flown five times before, without a problem. But this flight had a
    marginal antenna (my memory doesn't remember all the details), and when
    communications became garbled, the guidance commands continued to be sent
    and acted on. The result was that the Atlas went wildly off course and
    had to be destroyed. The range safety officer said that he waited as long
    as possible before destroying the mission, so as to give us the maximum
    amount of data. And the spacecraft worked all the way to impact in the
    Atlantic.
    
    We had a second launch scheduled, and it became Mariner II, the first
    ever planetary encounter.
    
    The point is that "proven" software may still be susceptible to failure.
    
    Jim Wilson
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