Stunning Example of Government Failure

A decade ago a probe that NASA sent to Mars disappeared.  An investigation revealed the following:

The peer review preliminary findings indicate that one team used English units (e.g., inches, feet and pounds) while the other used metric units for a key spacecraft operation. This information was critical to the maneuvers required to place the spacecraft in the proper Mars orbit.

"Our inability to recognize and correct this simple error has had major implications," said Dr. Edward Stone, director of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. "We have underway a thorough investigation to understand this issue."

http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msp98/news/mco990930.html