I worked at JPL for two years in college and helped with flight hardware testing a few times (probably in the same clean room this story took place in, albeit several years later). I can definitely see how a mistake like this could get made. A few stories I remember hearing from those days:
1. Bending pins from trying to insert a connector incorrectly
2. Running a full day of testing but forgetting to set up data recording
3. Accidentally leaving a screwdriver next to the hardware inside a thermal vac chamber in an overnight test
1. Bending pins from trying to insert a connector incorrectly 2. Running a full day of testing but forgetting to set up data recording 3. Accidentally leaving a screwdriver next to the hardware inside a thermal vac chamber in an overnight test
Fun times!