After two high profile failures on Mars' missions in the late 90's, a NASA review determined Lockheed project engineers were not properly trained. The review also determined that the company's otherwise competent managers were inexperienced when it came to operating such complex programs.Sweeping changes at NASA and Lockheed were made to prevent a re-occurrence. Ever since, Lockheed has had more successes than failures until Genesis' crash Wednesday.The following is a chronological list of achievements and failures by Lockheed Martin.1960s – 2000s – In an ongoing project, the company successfully converted its Titan II Rockets for Intercontinental Ballistic Missile delivery systems to launch vehicles for communication, weather and military satellites.September 1999 – The $125 million Mars Climate Orbiter either broke up or burned up in the Martian atmosphere due to controllers' confusion over metric and English measurements in plotting its trajectory.December 1999 – Mars Climate Orbiter's companion spacecraft, the $165 million Mars Polar Lander, also crashed into Mars, apparently due to a bad line of software. Twin deep-space-2 micro-probes that were part of the polar lander mission, and which were to have drilled into Martian soil for water, also vanished.2002 – Successfully developed the Atlas 5 rocket that is credited with making it cheaper and more efficient to put communication satellites in orbit.June 2004 – Successfully tested an airbag system for the crew exploration vehicle. This system could be used for the future Space Shuttle replacement.
Lockheed Martin's successes and failures
Genesis’ crash Wednesday was another painful and public failure for Lockheed Martin and NASA. Lockheed Martin, based in Jefferson County, has seen some major successes and stunning disappointments in its very expensive, high profile work.
