In 1992 NASA Administrator Daniel Goldin introduced a management approach called “faster, better, cheaper.” Over the next eight years, NASA launched 146 payloads. All but 10 of the missions succeeded.
In 1999 two Mars missions failed. Mars Climate Orbiter was lost on September 23, because the subcontractor Lockheed Martin had not converted English units to metric units in its software. Mars Polar Lander was lost on December 3. Goldin said: “I, Dan Goldin, pushed too hard, and in doing so, stretched the system too thin.”
After the losses, NASA put less weight on “faster” and “cheaper.” It expected stronger test programs from subcontractors.