At this point, the controlling system has automatically shut down as it tried to convert the sideways velocity of the rocket from a 64-bit format to a 16-bit format (Gleick, 1996). The number was too big, and an overflow error resulted (Gleick, 1996). This bug that actually caused this havoc served no purpose when the rocket was in the air other than to align the system before launch. So, it should have been turned off (Gleick, 1996). …show more content…
However, the investigators blame no contractor as regards the failure (Gleick, 1996). According to Gleick (1996) he said the European investigators wrote that "a decision was taken, it was not analyzed or fully understood and the possible implications of allowing it to continue to function during flight were not realized." They failed to calculate quantitatively the money and time saved by ignoring the standard error-protection code (Gleick,