When Disaster Strikes In an article on Embedded.com called "When Disaster Strikes," Jack Ganssle recalls some disasters and what we learn from them while making a good argument for using source control. "In 1999 a Titan IVb (this is a really big rocket) blasted off the pad, bound for geosynchronous orbit with a military communications satellite aboard. Nine minutes into the flight, the first stage shut down and separated properly. The Centaur second stage ignited and experienced instabilities about the roll axis. That coupled into both yaw and pitch deviations until the vehicle tumbled. Computers compensated by firing the reaction control system thrusters till they ran out of fuel. The Milstar spacecraft wound up in a useless low-elliptical orbit. "A number of crucial constants specified the launcher's flight behavior. That file wasn't managed by a version control system (VCS) and was lost. An engineer modified a similar file to recreate the data but entered one parameter as -0.1992476 instead of the correct -1.992476. That was itthat one little slipup cost taxpayers a billion dollars. "We all know to protect important files with a VCSright? Astonishingly, in 1999 a disgruntled FAA programmer left the Federal Aviation Administration, deleting all of the software needed for on-route control of planes between Chicago O'Hare and the regional airports. He encrypted it on his home computer. The feds busted him, of course, but FBI forensics took six months to decrypt the key." | 