Mariner 1 and the fatal typo
Transcript
On July 22, 1962, Mariner 1 rose from Cape Canaveral as NASA's first attempt to send a spacecraft close to Venus.<sup class="text_citation" source_id="32"></sup><sup class="text_citation" source_id="2"></sup>
But soon the rocket veered off course, as a guidance antenna problem and a software error combined to confuse its steering system.<sup class="text_citation" source_id="32"></sup><sup class="text_citation" source_id="30"></sup>
At 293 seconds after liftoff, the Range Safety Officer sent the destruct command, and the Atlas and Mariner 1 were destroyed for safety before they could threaten populated areas or shipping lanes.<sup class="text_citation" source_id="32"></sup><sup class="text_citation" source_id="2"></sup>
The mistake became famous as "the most expensive hyphen in history," though NASA later noted the real error was a missing overbar, not a hyphen.<sup class="text_citation" source_id="10"></sup><sup class="text_citation" source_id="32"></sup>
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