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Software Error Caused Soyuz/Galileo Failure

Posted by samzenpus on from the put-that-anywhere dept.

schwit1 writes An investigation into the recent failed Soyuz launch of the EU's Galileo satellites has found that the Russian Fregat upper stage fired correctly, but its software was programmed for the wrong orbit. From the article: "The failure of the European Union’s Galileo satellites to reach their intended orbital position was likely caused by software errors in the Fregat-MT rocket’s upper-stage, Russian newspaper Izvestia reported Thursday. 'The nonstandard operation of the integrated management system was likely caused by an error in the embedded software. As a result, the upper stage received an incorrect flight assignment, and, operating in full accordance with the embedded software, it has delivered the units to the wrong destination,' an unnamed source from Russian space Agency Roscosmos was quoted as saying by the newspaper."

4 of 157 comments (clear)

  1. Not A SW error! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This is not a SW error! The software put them right where they were told to. The orbital parameters were wrong! This is a data error not a SW error!

  2. "Programmers" shouldn't write critical software by Brannon · · Score: 5, Insightful

    There's almost no overlap between the skills & techniques necessary to write & verify critical software (e.g. when lives or huge amounts of money are on the line) vs. what is considered to be "programming". Modern software engineering's approach to reliable system design is about where hardware engineering was fifty years ago, and about where civil engineering was 100 years ago.

    SQA is a joke. Reliable systems are made using way more robust techniques, including: (a) a severely restricted state space, (b) redundancy, (c) formal proofs, (d) fully (and formally) specified interfaces, (e) random simulation, (f) several different types of coverage, (g) physics-based analysis, etc.

    The failure of the software community to understand this distinction is why I'm scared to death about the coming world of driver-less cars and robots performing surgery. How many people are going to be killed by C++ in the next decade?

    1. Re:"Programmers" shouldn't write critical software by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I'm scared to death about the coming world of driver-less cars and robots performing surgery.

      Your fears are not rational. Self driving cars and robotic surgeons are tested for thousands of hours, under live conditions. SDCs are not perfect, but they already have a far better safety record than the average human driver. I had LASIK eye surgery done by a robot. I trusted it far more than I would a human surgeon. Getting rocket software right is difficult precisely because there is no way to do a live test. It has to work perfectly on the very first attempt. Very few other applications have such a severe constraint.

      How many people are going to be killed by C++ in the next decade?

      A lot fewer than would have died without it.

    2. Re:"Programmers" shouldn't write critical software by gl4ss · · Score: 5, Insightful

      it seems to me that in this case the programmers job was done 100% perfect.

      but the program was given wrong place to take the satellites to.

      --
      world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.