Many of us lose our sunglasses or sometimes just a set of keys, which is frustrating and, sure, can be costly. But in 1999 NASA lost a $125M Mars orbiter in the space. Not funny, right? It can happen. But you may be surprised and burst out in laughter if you knew the silly reason behind it.
The mistake occurred because Lockheed Martin engineers used English measurements (inches, feet, etc.) in their calculations in contrast to NASA’s metric calculations (centimeters, meters, etc.). And because of the variations this navigation information couldn’t properly transfer and the orbiter was lost. $125 million gone forever.
I read it today and been wondrring if an institute like NASA could do such silly and expensive mistakes, we could better them.
The most expensive mistake I made was losing my bike because I thought (I was drunk) I had parked it but it was always on the road and I never found it in the morning. Obviously it was stolen and I lost around $1000 in that. I now always park my bike before drinking.
I think everyone might have an experience similar to mine or it's just people say it to console me. Can't say but I'd love to hear from you.
What was the most expensive mistake you've ever made?