Same happened in ancient Rome. Once Julius Caesar crossed the Rubicon and showed to every ambitious general that they can become dictator for life, the republic was over. It didn’t matter that he was murdered, another ambitious man took his place (Octavian).

What I find insane is that scientists actually do firmware upgrades to rovers like Curiosity. Imagine the stakes of doing firmware upgrades on a device on another planet that you can’t communicate with in real time.

Oh, you got caught doing some shitty business thing and now you’re not making as much money. Here is a government bailout to make it up.