In 2001, NASA launched the Genesis probe, which spent the next few years travelling some 1.8 billion miles to collect samples of solar wind, so that scientists could better understand the composition of the solar system, and how it was formed.
NASA
It's a great way to make really expensive waffles.
Needless to say, the project cost millions of dollars, which was unfortunate since it crashed into Utah back in 2004.
The plan was for the probe's parachute to deploy, slowing the whole thing down so that NASA could safely intercept it and retrieve the precious data. But the chutes failed, causing Genesis to plummet. What went wrong? All of the scientists, and engineers, and other such smart folks at NASA installed a "gravity switch" backwards.
U.S. Air Force
Pictured: Gravity.
302 Comments