Chapter 45: Sol Five, Either Make or Break

Tomcat quickly figured out the reason. One of the Eagle's sensors had malfunctioned, giving the lander's computer a wrong signal, making it believe that it had reached the predetermined orbit. Therefore, it shut down and detached the first-grade rockets ahead of time. It had shut down twenty seconds too early.

This also meant that the Eagle had shut down the rockets 180 seconds after the launch.

This was a mistake that could have been avoided if Kunlun Station had maintained communications with the Eagle. Kunlun Station could have corrected its error in time, but unfortunately, their communications had been cut during the malfunction. No one was there to stop the lander from going crazy.

Having the rockets shut down prematurely was a severe mistake. It resulted in the orbit entry's failure.