The Missing Hyphen NASA aimed Mariner 1 at Venus in 1962. The rocket veered wildly off course. Engineers blew it up over the Atlantic. The cause was one missing hyphen. A typo in the guidance equations. Arthur C. Clarke called it the most expensive hyphen in history.
Source
NASA History Office, Mariner 1 mission report; also referenced in Arthur C. Clarke's 'The Promise of Space' (1968)
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