Continuity mistake: When Colonel Belt is going to bed after the press conference, the bottle on his side table moves between shots. (00:25:50)
Continuity mistake: When Mulder is at Ground Control and the woman is telling the space ship that they're going into fly-by-wire mode, the Mulder's visitor pass changes from beneath his jacket to above his jacket between shots. (00:20:00)
Factual error: The local Pasadena station code is WXDL, however it should start with a K not a W. (00:00:05)
Factual error: According to the NASA space shuttle launch countdown procedure, the close-out crew retreats to fallback area in the "T-3 hours and counting" phase. The members of the crew are the last persons who leave the launch pad at least 20 minutes before liftoff. However, during the close-up take of the main engines, when the ground control says "All systems go for APU start", we can see two members of the ground personnel in orange suits near the engines. (00:12:40)
Continuity mistake: When Michelle is driving her car, the back shots show some label to the left of a driving wheel that is missing in the front shots. (00:15:10)
Continuity mistake: When Michelle's car lays upside down, one can see that it has headlights with two lamps on each side, but in the previous shots her car has only one lamp on each side. (00:15:45)
Continuity mistake: During Colonel Belt's funeral, there are saluting soldiers standing behind Michelle in some shots, while in others they are not there. (00:43:45)
Answer: As he stated many times throughout the series, Mulder needed Scully to be sober and skeptical. Whenever Scully's skepticism wavered and she started questioning her own rationality, Mulder would try to restore her sense of skepticism, because he needed her to be clear-thinking.
Charles Austin Miller