I don't actually think it's a NASA phrase - I think it's coined by Jean-Louis Gassée (ex-Apple, of BeOS fame). Gassée's hypothetical NASA example (he talks abo

I don't actually think it's a NASA phrase - I think it's coined by Jean-Louis Gassée (ex-Apple, of BeOS fame). Gassée's hypothetical NASA example (he talks about a moon launch) is actually pretty bad. What you really need is a scenario where the potential problems are not catastrophic, but incredibly inconvenient.