As with most things in life, NASA missions tend to gain the most attention when they either succeed fantastically or fail utterly.
When Apollo 11 touched down on the lunar surface in 1969, the New York Times ran with the headline “MEN WALK ON MOON.” And when NASA’s Orbiting Carbon Observatory took a nosedive into the Indian Ocean in 2009, newspaper editors and bloggers alike were quick to break out the “FAIL” headlines.