page_title: 1999
section_title: October
hierarchical_section_title: 1999 / Events / October
caption_attribution_description: English: The Mars Surveyor '98 Climate Orbiter is shown here during acoustic tests that simulate launch conditions. The orbiter was to conduct a two year primary mission to profile the Martian atmosphere and map the surface. To carry out these scientific objectives, the spacecraft carried a rebuilt version of the pressure modulated infrared radiometer, lost with the Mars Observer spacecraft, and a miniaturized dual camera system the size of a pair of binoculars, provided by Malin Space Science Systems, Inc., San Diego, California. During its primary mission, the orbiter was to monitor Mars atmosphere and surface globally on a daily basis for one Martian year (two Earth years), observing the appearance and movement of atmospheric dust and water vapor, as well as characterizing seasonal changes of the planet's surface. Imaging of the surface morphology would also provide important clues about the planet's climate in its early history. The mission was part of NASA's Mars Surveyor program, a sustained program of robotic exploration of the red planet, managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, DC. Lockheed Martin Astronautics was NASA's industrial partner in the mission. Unfortunately, Mars Climate Orbiter burned up in the Martian atmosphere on September 23, 1999, due to a metric conversion error that caused the spacecraft to be off course.
context_page_description: 1999 was a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1999th year of the Common Era and Anno Domini designations, the 999th year of the 2nd millennium, the 99th year of the 20th century, and the 10th and last year of the 1990s decade.
  1999 was designated as the International Year of Older Persons.
context_section_description: October – NASA loses one of its probes, the Mars Climate Orbiter.
  October 1 – Shanghai Pudong International Airport opens in China, taking over all international flights from Hongqiao.
  October 5 – Thirty-one people die in the Ladbroke Grove rail crash, west of London, England.
  October 12 – Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif attempts to dismiss Army Chief General Pervez Musharraf, who is out of the country. The generals lead a coup d'état, ousting Sharif's administration, and Musharraf takes control of the government.
  October 13 – The United States Senate rejects ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT).
  October 27 – Gunmen open fire in the Armenian Parliament, killing Prime Minister Vazgen Sargsyan, Parliament Chairman Karen Demirchyan, and six other members.
  October 29 – A super cyclonic storm impacts Orissa, India, killing approximately 10,000 people.
  October 30 – 1999 Inchon bar fire: A pub catches fire in Inchon, South Korea, killing 56 people.
  October 31
  EgyptAir Flight 990, travelling from New York City to Cairo, crashes off the coast of Nantucket, Massachusetts, killing all 217 on board.
  Roman Catholic Church and several Lutheran Church leaders sign the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification, attempting to resolve a centuries-old doctrinal dispute over the nature of faith and salvation.
caption: Mars Climate Orbiter during tests
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