In July 1962, a NASA engineer transcribing the Mariner 1 guidance code missed a single overbar above the letter R, and 293 seconds after launch the rocket veered off course over the Atlantic and had to be destroyed — a hyphen-shaped error that Arthur C. C Space Daily
In 1962, a single missing character in NASA's guidance software doomed Mariner 1 just minutes after launch — a transcription error so costly that Arthur C. Clarke famously called it "the most expensive hyphen in history" Make Tech Easier