"William Elliot" wrote
At least you did admit to the loss of two Mars missions because (oh
blush) you overlooked contractor and NASA were using different units of
measurement.

It's amazing to me to see the inverse relation between sincerity/certitude
and actual factual reality. Thanks for giving another fine example
about how reality-challenged people view the Hubble decision.

One -- not two -- Mars missions were lost because NASA management
cut too many corners and 'assumed it was good unless proved otherwise',
then cut out the personnel whose job it would have been to do that.

The probe wasn't lost because of a human error in units. It was lost
because the Goldin-style faster-better-cheaper mantra required
a process in which humans were perfect, and didn't need
checking. THAT was the cause of the disaster, not the fact
that the project was implemented by normal human beings.