Andromeda

On July 13, 2005, the "Return to Flight" of the American Space Shuttle was aborted due to an ECO fuel sensor problem.

The ECO ("engine cut-off") fuel sensor is supposed to be able to tell when the tanks are empty and cut the engines off. The reason such a cut-off is required is that, if the engines attempt to continue running with an empty tank, they may suffer "uncontained failure" (i.e., fiery explosion). In other words, exactly like a '77 Buick Electra.

Oh yeah, they also acknowledged it had already been failing intermittently well before the July 13, 2005 launch date. In fact, since April:

Recent problems with the ECO sensor system dates back to April when two of the four hydrogen depletion sensors operated intermittently during a fueling test. Engineers removed a "black box" from Discovery that is used to format and relay data from the sensors to the shuttle's flight computers and subjected it to detailed analysis. But it operated normally.

So, following the July 13 abort, they took the ECO fuel sensor system apart and checked everything, testing it this way and that and, eventually, they found some ground variances and some possible electromagnetic interference, but they didn't actually find the problem. So they put it all back together and, on July 18, 2005, they announced they were going to launch on Tuesday, July 26, 2005. Unless the ECO fuel sensor warning goes off during count-down again.

We now drive an '02 LeSabre. Occasionally, we get this "Engine Exploding" light on the dashboard. So we scrunch our eyes, hunch our shoulders and wait, thinking "We have absolutely GOT to get this car in for service, absolutely GOT to." But then the light goes out again. So we drive on, past several friendly service stations and auto repair shops. Because the light is not on, see? Sure, we have found the light goes back on if we flick it lightly with our finger. So we don't do that anymore.