[dabluecaboose]

Former GOES engineer here. At this point I'd almost be surprised if 19 didn't have something go wrong. We had issues on almost every other satellite. GOES-17 had the loop heat pipe anomaly(Supposedly from someone stepping on it in the cleanroom...), GOES-15 (IIRC) had a micrometeorite strike, and GOES-13 had a fuel tank anomaly right before deorbit.

GOES-16 and GOES-17 are on-orbit spares, so in the extremely unlikely event of a total failure there's at least another spacecraft on-orbit ready to take up station.

That said, I have every faith in the GOES team to get to the bottom of this. They're the best, and I often wish I was back there working with them.

[Rygian]

From now on, every time I see the word "anomaly" I will assume it is an euphemism for "someone stepped on it".

[dabluecaboose]

"Anomaly" is one of those words that, in the space industry, can mean anything from "Our payload isn't behaving as well as we're expecting" to "Someone stepped on it" to "A rock hit it"

You can use it to describe literally anything that's off nominal. It's fantastic.

[bigfatkitten]

I learned recently that it can also mean "the spacecraft exploded on the launchpad in an enormous fireball."

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-05-29/blue-origin-rocket-ex...

[DaiPlusPlus]

That's already known as "rapid unscheduled disassembly" - and happens so-often in spaceflight that it's hardly anomalous at this point.

[waste_monk]

I do love the term "lithobraking" as well.

[bayindirh]

Or it has failed catastrophically and gone under voluntary rapid disassembly to help engineers to diagnose the problem: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EC9icOKGJ94

[superxpro12]

I feel like we're all forgetting the most obvious root cause... "aliens"

[fishgoesblub]

> Supposedly from someone stepping on it in the cleanroom

I would be too embarrassed to return to work if I did that.

[pooloo]

How do they track that? Is there a log book where someone has to write to?

"Observed EMP555 step on loop heat pipe. Conducted visual inspection of the affected area; no damage found, pipe remains nominal."

[robszumski]

I'm sure they take detailed close out photos and likely video of the entire handling process.

[altairprime]

“Measurements taking of the person: foot and shoe weight, total weight including clothing, height and leg length, estimated velocity of travel at time, estimated duration of load”

[KennyBlanken]

Since it went into space with the stepped-on part, clearly nobody DID write it up.

They really don't care. If the satellite blows up or fails, they get to build another.

[Alive-in-2025]

I didn't but that's the case. More likely there was a limited chance to evaluate the issue and something like they had a limited time launch window, no replacement ready and it tested good. "Just put a little butter on it, it's fine".

[GTP]

You expect cleanrooms to be extremely controlled environments where skilled technicians and engineers very carefully handle sensitive equipment... Then someone steps on a component :D

[krisoft]

Yeah. Stuff happens.

There is the famous case of dropping the NOAA N-Prime weather satellite on the ground. They were trying to turn it from vertical to horizontal and they forgot to bolt it to the adapter. Worse: multiple people signed the paperwork attesting that they verified that it was bolted down correctly. Pictures and details here: https://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0410/04noaanreport/

Or the famous “space aligator” event. There the original plan was to launch a manned space craft and an unmanned module to do a docking test between them. But the shroud protecting the target module didn’t deploy properly. If i remember it right because the man who usually assembled that part had to leave during assembly because his wife was giving birth. Someone put it together but appearantely not correctly. The half opened shroud reminded the astronauts to the jaws of an angry aligator hence the name. Pictures: https://www.nasa.gov/missions/gemini/gemini-ix/gemini-ix-cre...

Or to not only list American failures: this russian satelite launch failed spectacularly because the IMU was installed upside down. https://youtu.be/ycRVAcZC5R4?si=LRTS7sutKSp6HnGs This was designed to be impossible to do, but someone bent and forced the component to stay in place in the wrong orientation. Then someone else whose job was to check it just signed the paperwork without climbing into the location where he could have checked it.

I love these cases. Because it shows to me how even though the trappings of high-tech we are all fundamentally just occasionally lazy, occasionally distracted monkeys banging rocks together.

[fhdkweig]

> multiple people signed the paperwork attesting that they verified that it was bolted down correctly.

In my experience, the more people who are assigned to do something, the more those people assume that someone else did it and slack off. Of course, I've never worked on something as difficult to fix as an orbital satellite.

[superxpro12]

The infamous "it fell in-between the seat and the console" problem.

These happen constantly. It's always important to close the loop on these and make sure someone is assigned to it directly, not left to indirectly assume.

[Suzuran]

There was also a test of the Apollo Launch Escape System wherein an unmanned CSM was launched on a Little Joe rocket with the plan being to manually trigger the LES at a specific point in the flight. The problem was that the roll accelerometer in the Little Joe had been installed backwards, so it quickly developed a substantial roll rate once it left the ground and the resulting centrifugal force acting on the innards of the SM turned them into rapidly escaping outards. This tore the SM skin apart and satisfied the automatic abort conditions for firing the LES. The LES operated as designed, the CM was pulled free of the SM, then went on to become stable and reach successful recovery conditions. The result was determined to be a successful test of the LES and the mission did not need to be reflown.

[ahazred8ta]

In 1968, a team of Perkin-Elmer technicians were carrying the million dollar Copernicus space telescope mirror to the other side of the lab. They tripped over a piece of scrap lumber. Shaka, when the walls fell.

[jsrcout]

That's a new one for me. Do you happen to have any pointers to more info? I found a few mentions, but nothing substantial.

[ahazred8ta]

It was mentioned in http://www.terrydunkle.com/glass.php and in a Sky & Telescope magazine article from 1989 which explained why Perkin-Elmer began using very meticulous step by step procedure checklists after that. To prevent any major mistakes. Oh the irony.

[KennyBlanken]

> Stuff happens.

> There is the famous case of dropping the NOAA N-Prime weather satellite on the ground. They were trying to turn it from vertical to horizontal and they forgot to bolt it to the adapter. Worse: multiple people signed the paperwork attesting that they verified that it was bolted down correctly.

That wasn't a case of "stuff happens." It was a case of systemic issues with defense contractor employees not doing the work they were supposed to be, cutting corners, and "not giving a shit because if it breaks the government will just order another one from us."

It was basically fraud/grift/incompetence, not "stuff happens."

> If I remember it right because the man who usually assembled that part had to leave during assembly because his wife was giving birth. Someone put it together but appearantely not correctly.

And why was the process so poorly documented only one guy could do it right?

Why didn't someone check the assembly?

Answer: defense contractor laziness and incompetence.

[bagels]

Upside IMU is my favorite if only for the stupidity and spectacular video that resulted.

[walrus01]

NOAA-19 was dropped on its side because somebody forgot to attach the bolts to the transport platform it was riding on.

https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=satellite...

[NetMageSCW]

The independent review team concluded the issue was from FOD in the pipe and recommended a redesign. Do you have a definite citation for someone stepped on it?

[doright]

> GOES-17 had the loop heat pipe anomaly(Supposedly from someone stepping on it in the cleanroom...)

Was this reported anywhere in the news? Sounds like one of those "not even once" kind of mistakes.