NASA loses contact with Mars Climate Orbiter
The Mars Climate Orbiter was a robotic space probe launched by NASA to study the Martian climate, Martian atmosphere, and surface changes and to act as the communications relay for the Mars Polar Lander. Communication with the spacecraft was lost as it went into orbital insertion due to a problem with ground-based computer software. The spacecraft encountered Mars on a trajectory that brought it too close to the planet, causing it to pass through the upper atmosphere and disintegrate.