NASA

The failed tri-agency polar satellite program tested whether NOAA, NASA and the Department of Defense could turn shared requirements, cost controls and schedule truth into continuity evidence.

The Genesis crash was not just a hard landing; it tested whether inherited designs, switch orientation, verification evidence and recovery plans could protect irreplaceable science.

The Hubble mirror flaw was not only an optics defect; it tested whether contractors, reviewers and public agencies could prove that a precision instrument had been independently measured before launch.

The 1999 mission loss is a control-evidence case about interfaces, verification, anomaly escalation and project governance, not a folklore story about one arithmetic mistake.