[dzdt]

The data analysis done to try to salvage results from this mission were nothing short of heroic.

See [1] for more detailed discussion of how the Gravity B team pushed on with analysis in the face of systematic errors much larger than the effect they were trying to measure, to come out in the end with a believable measurement of the incredibly subtle effect of gravitational frame dragging.

[1] https://ddd.uab.cat/pub/tesis/2016/hdl_10803_400663/chev1de1...

[nine_k]

«As it was anticipated that "anything could go wrong", the final part of the flight mission was calibration, where amongst other activities, data was gathered with the spacecraft axis deliberately misaligned for 24 hours, to exacerbate any potential problems. This data proved invaluable for identifying the effects.»

One should always be open to the possibility of a failure, and do everything to meet it well-prepared!