Buzz
NASA is home to some of the brightest minds on Earth. Still, even the most brilliant are not immune to mistakes. When you're constantly exploring the frontiers of innovation and venturing into the unknown, missteps are inevitable. While these incidents are rare, given the dangers involved, NASA has faced some significant blunders — not to mention the catastrophic failures of its space missions.
10. The Moon Landing Tapes
For those who remember VHS tapes, there’s a familiar sense of regret when you realize you’ve accidentally recorded over something important. Maybe it was a sporting event or a child’s recital, nothing too significant. But imagine the disaster of overwriting the original footage of humanity’s first landing on the Moon.
That's right. The original tapes from the Apollo 11 mission, featuring the iconic footage of Neil Armstrong taking his first step on the Moon, have been lost.
It took NASA 35 years to realize those crucial tapes were missing. They then set out on a mission to locate them, only to discover that they had been accidentally overwritten in the 1980s due to a tape shortage. This was a common practice at the time, and they certainly wouldn’t have done it if they had known what was recorded on those tapes.
9. The Arsenic-Based Life-Form
In 2010, a NASA-funded project led by astrobiologist Felisa Wolfe-Simon made an astounding claim. They announced the discovery of a bacterium with a unique DNA structure that used arsenic instead of phosphorus. This so-called alien life-form (“GFAJ-1”) quickly became the talk of biologists worldwide.
Biologists identify six essential elements for all known life forms: hydrogen, oxygen, carbon, nitrogen, sulfur, and phosphorus. The new life-form was said to have the ability to use arsenic for survival in place of phosphorus. Although arsenic and phosphorus have similar structures, arsenic is highly toxic to most organisms. This bold claim, unsurprisingly, was met with significant skepticism.
Soon after, two new studies published in Science contradicted the original findings. While the bacterium’s environment was indeed low in phosphorus and high in arsenic, its DNA still utilized phosphorus. Although the bacterium was an extremophile capable of thriving in an arsenic-rich environment, it wasn’t an entirely new form of life.
8. NOAA-19
NOAA-19 was the final satellite in a series launched by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration for the Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite (POES) project. The goal was to establish a satellite network that would supply valuable data for climate research.
Lockheed Martin, one of NASA’s primary subcontractors, had vast experience in building large, complex, and costly equipment. Despite this, the satellite was severely damaged before it even launched. NASA officially blamed the accident on "lack of procedural discipline," which is bureaucratic speak for "they made a huge mistake." The satellite was dropped because someone had forgotten to secure it properly.
Technicians had used a specialized cart to turn the satellite on its side. Normally, the satellite was held in place with 24 bolts, but one technician had removed them. He was supposed to document the removal but didn’t. The team was also supposed to check that the satellite was properly bolted down, but they failed to do so. The result: they tipped the satellite over and learned a costly lesson in the power of gravity.
How costly? $135 million in repair costs. Lockheed Martin had to forgo its profit on the project to cover the expenses.
7. The OCO
The Orbiting Carbon Observatory satellite was designed to measure Earth’s CO2 levels. Launched on February 24, 2009, it never made it past our atmosphere. Instead, it fell back to Earth, crashing into the Indian Ocean near Antarctica. Over $270 million and nine years of development were spent on the satellite, and the damage was so severe that no part of it could be recovered.
The issue was small, but the impact was immense. When rockets are launched, a conical cover known as a "payload fairing" shields the payload. The rocket is supposed to eject the fairing at a certain point, but in this case, it didn’t. The additional weight meant that the rocket didn’t have enough power to break free from the atmosphere.
Five years later, in July 2014, the OCO-2 was successfully launched, correcting NASA's previous mistake.
6. NASA Helios
In the 1990s, NASA launched the Environmental Research Aircraft and Sensor Technology (ERAST) program, aimed at creating long-term atmospheric satellites in the form of remote-controlled drones. First, they developed the NASA Pathfinder, followed by the Pathfinder Plus. Both models were successful, leading to the creation of an improved version, the NASA Centurion. All three aircraft set flight records and met expectations. The next step was the NASA Helios, intended to be the crowning achievement of the ERAST program.
The Helios crashed into the Pacific Ocean.
The crash occurred in 2001 during a test flight designed to assess the remote piloting systems. Although there were early concerns about the weather conditions, the Helios received a tentative and borderline go-ahead for launch, which proved to be a mistake.
The flight was meant to be the aircraft's 10th successful journey. Instead, about 30 minutes after takeoff, the Helios fell into the ocean near the Hawaiian island of Kauai. The crash was primarily blamed on unfavorable weather conditions. However, before its demise, the aircraft set a new record by reaching the highest altitude ever attained by a non-rocket-powered aircraft.
5. The DART
The DART, which stands for Demonstration for Autonomous Rendezvous Technology, was another satellite that met an unfortunate end due to a simple mistake. Managed by Orbital Sciences Corporation and sponsored by NASA, the project aimed to create a robotic satellite capable of performing maintenance and repairs on other satellites, offering a safer and more cost-effective alternative to sending astronauts each time.
The DART launched on its first mission on April 15, 2005, with its target being MUBLCOM (Multiple-Path Beyond-Line-of-Sight Communications), a relay satellite. The plan was for DART to dock gently and begin its repair work. Unfortunately, the satellite had a rather different interpretation of “gently,” resulting in a collision that was essentially the space equivalent of a hit-and-run.
Even if the collision hadn’t occurred, the mission still wouldn’t have succeeded. Another error caused the DART to consume more propellant than anticipated, leading it to run out of fuel midway through the mission. About 11 hours into the scheduled 24-hour operation, the satellite detected it was out of fuel and began an automatic procedure to avoid being left stranded in space.
4. Skylab
Skylab, the first American space station, was launched in 1973 and remained operational until 1979. It provided a wealth of valuable data, but the one thing that most people remember is its crash. And for good reason—it was an incredible spectacle, a global event that garnered a great deal of media attention. It could have been much worse, though.
NASA’s lack of foresight in this case was unusual for the organization. They didn’t give much thought to how Skylab would eventually return to Earth, although they knew it would happen at some point. Skylab’s expected lifespan was only nine years in the best-case scenario. A navigational system was not a viable option at the time due to technological limitations and prohibitive costs. Even so, a bit more planning could have made a difference.
Before the crash, NASA estimated a 1-in-152 chance of human injury. Their solution was to use rockets to guide the space station into the Indian Ocean. They mostly succeeded—larger parts of Skylab did fall into the ocean, but many fragments landed in Australia. Fortunately, no one was injured, and there was minimal damage.
For some, the incident turned out to be quite profitable. An Australian teenager won $10,000 from the San Francisco Examiner for being the first to deliver a piece of debris. NASA got lucky, but they didn’t escape without consequences. The Shire of Esperance in Australia fined them $400 for littering.
3. Apollo 13
Apollo 13 came dangerously close to becoming another tragic disaster, similar to the Challenger and Columbia shuttle incidents. Launched on April 11, 1970, Apollo 13 was meant to be the third crewed mission to land on the Moon. The crew, led by Captain Jim Lovell, was supposed to land on the Fra Mauro highlands and explore the 80-kilometer (50 mi) crater in that area.
The mission hit trouble almost immediately. One of the astronauts, Ken Mattingly, was replaced by rookie astronaut Jack Swigert after Mattingly contracted rubella. The situation worsened further when a cryogenic oxygen tank exploded, damaging another tank in the process. This caused the spacecraft to lose its ability to generate power, maintain oxygen, or produce water. Swigert famously reported the problem with the line 'Houston, we’ve had a problem' (although the movie altered it to 'Houston, we have a problem' and attributed it to Commander Jim Lovell).
With the mission's original goal of landing on the Moon now impossible, the new focus was on safely bringing the astronauts home. Although it seemed like a hopeless situation, Apollo 13 still had a functional backup. The astronauts survived by staying in the backup craft during their journey back to Earth, before switching to the original craft, which was capable of handling reentry.
2. Mars Climate Orbiter
Launched in December 1998, just before the Mars Polar Lander (MPL), the Mars Climate Orbiter (MCO) was designed to orbit Mars and monitor its atmospheric conditions, temperatures, weather patterns, water vapor, and surface changes. Unfortunately, similar to MPL, the MCO reached Mars only to disintegrate upon entering the planet's atmosphere.
The failure was caused by a simple but costly error, leading to a loss of $125 million. The manufacturer, Lockheed Martin, had calculated the impulse generated by the thrusters using metric units (newton-seconds), but NASA had assumed that the value was in imperial units (pound-seconds). This miscalculation led the orbiter to enter Mars' atmosphere at a much steeper angle than required, which resulted in engine overheating and failure.
What makes this error particularly frustrating is how easily it could have been avoided. Most mistakes happen after a spacecraft has already been launched, leaving no room for correction. In this case, the mistake happened 10 months before the launch, while the orbiter was still on Earth. Despite numerous checks and reviews, no one caught the error before it was too late.
1. Mars Polar Lander
The Mars Polar Lander (MPL) was one of NASA's most ambitious missions, designed to be the first robotic lander to explore the polar regions of Mars. Scientists were optimistic that the MPL would uncover crucial information about the potential presence of water on Mars, as well as the possibility that the planet could have once supported life.
Launched in January 1999, the MPL reached its destination by December. As it began its descent toward the Martian surface, everything seemed to be proceeding smoothly—until contact was abruptly lost. That was the last time anyone heard from the lander.
Communication with the MPL was unexpectedly cut off, and despite extensive efforts, no signal was ever received again. The exact cause of the failure remains a mystery, and to this day, the fate of the lander is unknown. After a month of trying to reestablish contact, NASA officially declared the mission a total failure.
Although the exact cause remains unclear, the prevailing theory suggests that erroneous signals during descent tricked the MPL's onboard computers into believing it had already landed. Mistakenly thinking it was safely on solid ground, the lander shut off its engines. Unfortunately, it was still far from the surface and continued to fall, ultimately crashing.
