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nasa goofs
NASA lost contact with the $125 million probe Sept. 24 as it attempted to go
into orbit around the Red Planet. Turns out the spacecraft was fatally close
to the planet's surface as it began its final braking maneuver.
It now appears the spacecraft probably was slightly off-course its entire 9
1/2-month journey due to the mixup.
Preliminary findings released Thursday by NASA show that Lockheed Martin
Astronautics in Colorado, which built the spacecraft, submitted its
navigation data to NASA's control team in California in English
measurements. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California assumed the
figures were in metric, since that is what NASA has been using for previous
Mars missions.
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Protector of this Putrid Realm,
and Defender of the Undefined Faith.
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