NASA Test Flight Crash Blamed on Inexperience
Inexperience, mismanagement and technical problems caused a spacecraft to smash into its target during an automated test flight last year, NASA investigators said this week.
Investigators blamed the collision on faulty navigational data that caused the DART spacecraft to believe it was backing away from its target when it was actually bearing down on it.
They said that because of a lack of training and experience, the DART design team shunned expert advice. They also found that internal checks and balances were inadequate.
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