May 7, 1999--Incorrect software loaded into a Titan rocket sent a Milstar satellite into a useless orbit, Aviation Week & Space Technology reports.
http://www.findarticles.com/cf_0/m0EIN/1999_May_10/54585116/p1/article.jhtml
Three rocket launch failures that have cost taxpayers at least $3 billion can be traced to human error, the Air Force's top space official told a House subcommittee Tuesday.
Malfunctions being investigated by the committee include a rocket that exploded after launch on Aug. 12, a missile-warning satellite that was launched into the wrong orbit on April 9, and a military communications satellite sent into orbit thousands of miles too low on April 30.
The most recent failure seems to have been caused by an error written into the software in the rocket's upper stage, said Keith Hall, assistant secretary of the Air Force for Space.
''There was the insertion of a decimal point,'' Hall told the House Technical and Tactical Intelligence subcommittee. ''That appears to be the cause.''
The Air Force is investigating the three cases, all involving Lockheed Martin Titan 4 rockets, but the hearing did not produce details of what human errors apparently caused the other two failures. [June 16, 1999 ]
http://www.holology.com/tech.html#11
Mars Climate Orbiter was lost Sept. 23 when nobody realized that Lockheed Martin Astronautics delivered navigation data in English units rather than metrics. The $125 million craft burned up in the Martian atmosphere. Their combined cost was about the same as the last successful spacecraft to land on Mars — Pathfinder in 1997 From MSNBC.
http://www.holology.com/tech.html#13
The US Los Alamos National Laboratory is searching for 10 missing computer disks containing classified information about other nations' nuclear programs, according to lab officials. December 2003
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/s1008974.htm
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