Explore the critical lessons from the 1996 Ariane 5 rocket launch failure in this 27-minute conference talk by Mark El Khoury at StaffPlus New York 2024. Delve into the software design missteps that led to the rocket's explosion just 39 seconds after launch. Analyze historical flaws to gain insights on resilience and product security in software engineering. Examine the nuances of testing, validation, handling legacy code, and challenging assumptions during the design process. Learn about the unique challenge of proving the non-occurrence of negative events when systems don't fail catastrophically. Apply these valuable lessons from rocket science to enhance your approach to software development and system reliability.