Maybe the mean-spirited cynic in me was right when I last posted about NASA's Genesis mission.
It's interesting, though. This is from a report on Friday's Channel 4 News site: "The NASA spacecraft that smashed into the Utah desert last month while bringing home fragile samples of the sun may have been doomed by engineering drawings that had been done backwards."
NASA spins it a little differently in their report: "The Mishap Investigation Board (MIB) has identified a likely direct cause of the failure of Genesis' parachute system to open… The MIB said the likely cause was a design error that involves the orientation of gravity-switch devices… 'This single cause has not yet been fully confirmed, nor has it been determined whether it is the only problem within the Genesis system,' said Dr. Michael G. Ryschkewitsch, the MIB chair. 'The Board is working to confirm this proximate cause, to determine why this error happened, why it was not caught by the test program and an extensive set of in-process and after-the-fact reviews of the Genesis system.'"
Either way to say it, this does not exactly instill confidence in NASA.
It's interesting, though. This is from a report on Friday's Channel 4 News site: "The NASA spacecraft that smashed into the Utah desert last month while bringing home fragile samples of the sun may have been doomed by engineering drawings that had been done backwards."
NASA spins it a little differently in their report: "The Mishap Investigation Board (MIB) has identified a likely direct cause of the failure of Genesis' parachute system to open… The MIB said the likely cause was a design error that involves the orientation of gravity-switch devices… 'This single cause has not yet been fully confirmed, nor has it been determined whether it is the only problem within the Genesis system,' said Dr. Michael G. Ryschkewitsch, the MIB chair. 'The Board is working to confirm this proximate cause, to determine why this error happened, why it was not caught by the test program and an extensive set of in-process and after-the-fact reviews of the Genesis system.'"
Either way to say it, this does not exactly instill confidence in NASA.
Comments