YOU鈥橠 think that by now, NASA should be able to tell up from down. Not so in the case of their Genesis space capsule, which crashed into the desert in Utah instead of parachuting gently down so that helicopter stunt pilots could pluck it to safety.
Since its launch in August 2001, the capsule had been collecting precious particles from the solar wind that would have told us something about the composition of the solar system. But after re-entering Earth鈥檚 atmosphere on 8 September, Genesis plunged into the ground and much of its payload was lost.
On 15 October, investigators released their preliminary conclusions, blaming the crash on 鈥渁 design error that involves the orientation of gravity-switch devices鈥�. Huh?
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The four small cylindrical switches were designed to sense the re-entry and trigger the parachute. But they were drawn upside down in Lockheed Martin鈥檚 technical drawings, so they were installed upside down 鈥� although NASA鈥檚 Michael Ryschkewitsch, who led the investigation, is reluctant to use those exact words. The switches never detected the re-entry. Similar devices are installed on another sample-collecting mission called Stardust. Ryschkewitsch believes these are the right way up.