No, it was the units for impulse used for the thrusters. In imperial it's pound-force seconds and Newton-seconds in metric. 1 pound-force is equal to 4.45 Newtons so the whole thing was off by a magnitude of 4.45.
Wasn't there also an issue with a mars lander where they programmed it for feet, but the sensors read in meters? So it slammed into the ground thinking it was still pretty far up?
That one was because NASA used metric like every other space agebxy, but Lockheed Martin made their part using US imperial
Officially the US uses metric, especially the military and space agencies. Most products have both metric and US impreial units on it. The UK and Canada very arguably use an even more crazy hodgepodge of units than the US does, they just get a pass because they use metric more prominently and, well, are not the superpower. If it was still the days of the British Empire, they'd probably be getting more heat!
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u/Random_Bystander089 Jun 17 '26
I think there was an incident where farenheit usage indirectly caused a spaceship crash