Report on the loss of the Mars Climate Orbiter Mission : JPL special review board

The Mars Climate Orbiter (MCO) was launched on December 11, 1998. The MCO was to arrive at Mars and begin orbit insertion on September 23, 1999. The Mars Orbit Insertion (MOI) burn, a 16-minute maneuver to slow the spacecraft and enable capture into an orbit around Mars, began on schedule. Five minutes into the maneuver, and approximately 49 seconds before the anticipated time for loss of communication, the MCO was occulted by Mars. Thereafter, no contact with the spacecraft could be established. On September 24, 1999, an internal JPL team (the MCO Peer Review Team) was appointed to help investigate the reason for the loss of spacecraft signal. The Peer Review Team's findings are presented in this report.