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The lasers, though, did not work, and engineers determined that a physical switch — a safety measure on the ground because the lasers are not eye-safe — was not flipped before launch.
Yeah, that’s got to be a pretty embarrassing mistake to make. Seems like the the sort of thing which ought to have been on the checklist…
I’m impressed that they managed to land it despite this. Landing on the moon is not easy, and having to write and upload a software patch on the fly to use a different set of lasers for GNC just makes it harder.
Not a flawless mission, but still a great acheivement.
It’s a stupid mistake, but such a great stroke of luck to catch it, then awesome work to implement the patch and still land at all. The trial by fire lately at all these startups is producing some great stories and better engineers.