How a type error destroyed NASA's $300 million Mars Climate Orbiter in 1999
jimmykoppel · x · 2026-10-22
NASA's $300 million Mars Climate Orbiter was lost in 1999 due to a type error — mismatched imperial and metric units. Jimmy Koppel shares a deep dive into how this classic software engineering failure unfolded and what it teaches about type safety and engineering rigor.
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