Real System Failures

This resource area contains descriptions of actual electronic systems failure scenarios with an emphasis on the diversity of failure modes and effects that can befall dependable systems.

Introductory pages begin here.
The descriptions begin here. These pages are separated into sections. Each section starts with a List of failure scenarios.
In between the List slides are slides that give more information on those scenarios which warrant more than a bullet or two of explanation.
Some references are listed here.
A list of acronyms and initialisms is here.

If you would like to add a story to this list or add additional significant details to an existing story, please contact Kevin Driscoll at

For a not-quite-working wiki subset of this Resource area, click on the Wiki link just to the left of this Summary or go to the URL https://c3.nasa.gov/dashlink/projects/79/wiki/test_stories_split.

Also, those who log in can add comments to the Discussions at the bottom of this page.

Data and Resources

Additional Info

Field Value
Maintainer Kevin Driscoll
Last Updated March 31, 2025, 18:11 (UTC)
Created March 31, 2025, 18:11 (UTC)
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