Satellite Mishap Blamed on Human Error
504088
A &#36;239 million satellite toppled to a factory floor last year because nobody bothered to check that it was secure before moving it, according to a NASA investigation board's report on the mishap.
223467
A board investigating the crash of NASA&#39;s Genesis spacecraft has found the design for a key system was drawn backward. The result: improper orientation of switches that were supposed to detect its entry into
654272
Europe's first mission to the moon got a scare, but ground controllers made a last-minute course correction early Saturday that kept the craft from hitting the surface earlier than planned.
566701
The phenomenon, known as frame-dragging, is quite small, amounting to 6 feet in the distance that satellites, moving at about 18,000 miles per hour, cover in their orbits in a year, but it is within the ability of NASA&#39;s instruments to detect.
263916
Five years ago, after two NASA missions to Mars were doomed by elementary mistakes -- a software glitch and a mix-up between English and metric units -- the space agency devised more elaborate
401999
Any one of a number of technical malfunctions might have caused the loss of Beagle 2, the ill-fated British space probe that vanished while attempting to land on Mars, an investigation found.
139030
A rocket carrying an Israeli spy satellite crashed shortly after liftoff on Monday, officials said. The Defense Ministry blamed a malfunction in the third stage of the rocket, which took off from an air base in Israel.
30312
Europe's first mission to the moon got a scare Saturday, but ground controllers were able make a last-minute course correction that kept the European Space Agency craft from prematurely hitting a lunar crater's rim.
35112
There are literally tons of man-made debris orbiting the Earth, from rocket parts to dead satellites to human waste dumped by space station crews. Then there's the stuff that spacewalking astronauts have simply lost out there.
111779
Faulty switches have been identified as the most likely cause of the Genesis sample-return capsule&#39;s crash landing in Utah, US, last month.
408139
StarBand reportedly was supporting its customers with dial-up service during the outage. Intelsat said it was not yet sure what caused the problem on board the IA-7 satellite during the early hours of Sunday
111984
Three-quarters of incidents involving loss of sensitive data are caused by human error, according to researchers.
728631
Satellite operator Intelsat Ltd. has  lost a satellite following an unexpected electrical power  problem less than two months after electrical problems ruined  another satellite.
113545
Engineers sought to determine what caused a temperature control system to malfunction after an aborted launch Saturday.
616371
By Richard StewartANGLETON -- Angleton, we have a problem. Plans to build what was once hailed as a futuristic takeoff and landing facility for commercial spacecraft on the coastal prairie of Brazoria County may soon come crashing to Earth.
563985
An investigating board says the capsule was doomed by faulty engineering drawings that were done backward. The drawings led to incorrect placement of switches that were supposed to detect Genesis' re-entry into Earth's atmosphere.
450281
China either didn't know or didn't care that its test of a satellite killer would produce a spray of space debris. Either way, it's worrisome for the future use of space.  Another question is why China even bothered.