The Solar Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) spacecraft completed its primary mission in 1997 and was such a success that it has been extended multiple times currently through 2009. But in its first extension in 1998, we almost lost SOHO due to errors in code modifications that were intended to prolong the lifetime of its attitude control gyroscopes. The command sequence to deactivate a gyroscope did not contain the code to reactivate it. Due to a prioritization of science tasking, an aggressive schedule and limited staffing, these code modifications were not thoroughly tested before implementation. When SOHO started experiencing complications, standard operating procedures were circumvented in order to return SOHO to operational status as quickly as possible. The results were the failure to detect that one of the gyros was inactive, the progressive destabilization of attitude and the complete loss of communications with SOHO. It took us three months of labor-intensive collaboration with the European Space Agency to miraculously recover SOHO. This month's case study shows us how ignored review processes and circumvented operating procedures can severely jeopardize mission success.