A units mix-up at Lockheed Martin cost NASA an entire Mars probe
NASA's Mars Climate Orbiter was lost because of a simple unit mix-up. Lockheed Martin supplied NASA with software that worked in US customary units of force, while the mission expected metric. The spacecraft was destroyed, a 125 million dollar loss, from a mismatch any physics student is warned about.
The company that made that error is also the United States government's biggest contractor, and has been since at least 2008. It was formed in March 1995 when Lockheed Corporation merged with Martin Marietta in a deal first priced at 10 billion dollars. Each side brought famous hardware. Lockheed contributed the U-2 and SR-71 Blackbird spy planes, the F-16, the F-117 stealth jet and the C-130 Hercules; Martin Marietta brought Titan rockets, the Space Shuttle's external tank and the Viking landers that reached Mars.
Its dependence on Washington is striking. In 2024 nearly three-quarters of revenue came from the federal government, 65 percent from the Pentagon alone, and 26 percent from a single product, the F-35 fighter. Lockheed won that programme in 2001 with an initial order of 3,000 aircraft, the largest fighter procurement since the F-16. Aeronautics accounts for the largest share of sales, ahead of rotary and mission systems, missiles, and space.
Some sidelines are unexpected. In the 1990s it designed graphics hardware for Sega arcade machines, including the entire graphics system of the Model 3 board that powered hit games. In 2011 it bought D-Wave's first quantum computing system, and it has invested in compact nuclear fusion. It is also the main contractor for NASA's Orion crew capsule and has won the Collier Trophy, aviation's top American prize, six times.
Growth came with friction. A planned merger with Northrop Grumman collapsed in 1998 after officials worried the pair would control a quarter of the defence procurement budget. Over the years it has also paid to settle several government claims over inflated or false billing.
Source: Lockheed Martin
