We almost had a NASA moment. The programmer recorded all the altitudes for the different stages of the flight in meters, but thought it was feet. Instead of an altitude of 50000 feet, he was setting it to be 50000 meters, which would have been higher than a balloon can go. Thankfully we caught the problem and were able to fix it, but it’s a very good reminder to communicate your units. Ideally everything should be done in one system (preferably metric), but the reality is that the units between suppliers and systems vary and it’s not always possible to standardize. It’s definitely worth it to be clear, though.
Permanent link to this article: https://www.apollo67.com/2011/11/20/communicate-your-units/