Mars Climate Orbiter

The Mars Climate Orbiter was a NASA space probe launched in 1998 to study Mars' climate and atmosphere. Unfortunately, it failed to complete its mission in 1999 when it entered the Martian atmosphere at an incorrect angle and disintegrated. The failure was traced back to a mix-up between metric and imperial units; while NASA used metric measurements, a contractor used imperial measurements, leading to critical miscalculations. This incident highlighted the importance of consistent data standards in space exploration and served as a learning experience for future missions.