When NASA technicians saw the navigation system on the Morpheus lander prototype shut off less than a second after liftoff, they knew the craft was doomed. It was August, at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, and the 27th test flight; the previous 26 had gone well. But this time, the 3,400-pound vehicle flew 16 feet high and, without spatial data to guide it, fell to the ground, where it burst into a 50-foot fireball. The goal of Project Morpheus is to help develop a space vehicle that can land au...
When NASA technicians saw the navigation system on the Morpheus lander prototype shut off less than a second after liftoff, they knew the craft was doomed. It was August, at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, and the 27th test flight; the previous 26 had gone well. But this time, the 3,400-pound vehicle flew 16 feet high and, without spatial data to guide it, fell to the ground, where it burst into a 50-foot fireball. The goal of Project Morpheus is to help develop a space vehicle that can land au...
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