Mars Climate Orbiter

<p>The <i>Mars Climate Orbiter</i> (formerly the Mars Surveyor '98 Orbiter) was a <a href="/facts/Robotic_spacecraft/Frlbbkvu">robotic</a> space probe launched by <a href="/facts/NASA/TIMCV0yV">NASA</a> on December 11, 1998, to study the <a href="/facts/Climate_of_Mars/fRAS3qWy">Martian climate</a>, <a href="/facts/Atmosphere_of_Mars/DKT5TMlY">Martian atmosphere</a>, and <a href="/facts/Martian_surface/k702Fy8s">surface changes</a> and to act as the communications relay in the <a href="/facts/Mars_Surveyor_%252798/8A4IKbgc">Mars Surveyor '98</a> program for <a href="/facts/Mars_Polar_Lander/UCARCj7C">Mars Polar Lander</a>. However, on September 23, 1999, communication with the spacecraft was permanently lost as it went into <a href="/facts/Orbit_insertion/l8oQMJe4">orbital insertion</a>. The spacecraft encountered Mars on a trajectory that brought it too close to the planet, and it was destroyed in the atmosphere. An investigation attributed the failure to a measurement mismatch between two measurement systems: <a href="/facts/International_System_of_Units/S7YLglNz">SI units</a> (metric) by NASA and <a href="/facts/United_States_customary_units/s76n3Bx4">US customary</a> units by spacecraft builder <a href="/facts/Lockheed_Martin_Space/hqvv1eIY">Lockheed Martin</a>.
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Mars Climate Orbiter open-in-new

Mars Climate Orbiter