Satellite Tip-Over Mishap Due to Missing Bolts 76
cradle writes "On September 6th, the $239 Million Dollar NOAA N-Prime Satellite toppled over and crashed to the floor of Lockheed Martin Space Systems' factory in Sunnyvale, CA, as it was being repositioned to replace an instrument. Today NASA released their report on the cause of the accident. It seems somebody forgot to check whether it was bolted down: '... during an operation that required repositioning (rotating) the
TIROS NOAA N-PRIME spacecraft from a vertical to a horizontal position, the spacecraft
slipped from the Turn-Over Cart (TOC) and fell to the floor. The spacecraft fell because the
TIROS adapter plate to which it was mounted was not bolted to the TOC adapter plate with the
required 24 bolts. The bolts were removed from the TOC by another project while the cart was
in a common staging area, an activity which was not communicated to the NOAA project team.'"
Reason for mishap: (Score:1, Insightful)
And, another Simpsons quote:
"Haw-haw!"
Re:So... what they said originally? (Score:3, Insightful)
What happened is easy: the bolts weren't put in. Why took some looking into: People were sloppy in following procedures.
(Expletive here) happerns! (Score:3, Insightful)
Personally... (Score:5, Insightful)
Jeeeez, people, this isn't rocket science. Well actually it is rocket science, but that's the difference between rocket science and stuff that blows up on the pad.
Re:Personally... (Score:3, Insightful)
I think the transition for sentient being to red goo is much more motivating than the loss of a few dollars in hardware. That's just me though... YMMV
Re:Personally... (Score:3, Insightful)
>You say that now, but once you start working with that type of equipment every day, you get lazy.
Familiar -> Complacent -> Lazy -> Dead>They had used the TOC a few days prior, and there was no documentation that the bolts had been removed, so they assumed that it was fine. If some that other project team hadn't forgotten the documentation this wouldnt've happened.
[Fred] OK Bob, let's run through the checklist and fire this 747 up.[Bob] Don't bother with the checklist. Some guys flew it back from Tokyo a couple of days ago. Everything should still work, and I don't see any trouble tickets. They probably fueled it up, too.
Re:(Expletive here) happerns! (Score:3, Insightful)
However, there are still some things that shouldn't go wrong, ever, and there's not an excuse for it after the fact. This is one of them. You don't pull parts off something that's supposed to work without replacing them. This is almost akin to a mechanic servicing your engine and having "extra" parts left over when he closes the hood again. They were there for a reason, and they need to go back on before you finish whatever you're doing.
Re:Summary article (Score:2, Insightful)
Engineers, BTW, write processes but never follow their own process. Thus, they leave messes for the techs to sort out.
Re:Personally... (Score:2, Insightful)