Navigation Team Was Unfamiliar with Mars Climate Orbiter

Posted by tourdemars to Mars Polar Lander at November 10, 1999 12:00 PM

The Mars Climate Orbiter was lost at the Red Planet nearly seven weeks ago because the mission's navigation team was unfamiliar with the spacecraft. It lacked training, and failed to detect a mistake by outside engineers who delivered navigation information in English rather than metric units, according to a mission failure investigation report released Wednesday.