Curiosity

NASA's Mars rover Curiosity, was originally meant to have a cat (felis catus) on board. Initially, the idea was just a joke made by an anonymous board member, but no one seemed to get the irony. It was only when scientists told the administrator, Charles F. Bolden, Jr., that a cat would have “a Laika's chance in space” of surviving such a trip, that the idea was put to rest. A very fortunate turn of events for Mr. Snuggles, who had already been picked out.

The interesting part (and the reason it has relevance to typoguistics) is that these scientists were not in fact astronomers but linguists, and had based their findings on a common saying. “And even if this is not an exact science,” said one of the scientists “we can't risk it for the sake of NASA's reputation.”