Story · Lockheed Martin
NOAA-N Prime Satellite Toppled in Clean Room Due to 24 Borrowed Bolts
On September 6, 2003, the nearly complete $233 million NOAA-N Prime weather satellite fell from its handling cart onto a clean-room floor at Lockheed Martin in Sunnyvale, California. The cause was 24 bolts that a crew from another program had quietly removed from the shared fixture without documentation. A technician noticed the empty holes before the tilt operation but was dismissed. The satellite suffered extensive damage but was rebuilt, launched in 2009 as NOAA-19, and operated successfully for over 16 years. The incident became a case study in procedural failures and communication breakdowns.
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