Space Shuttle Disaster

Space Shuttle Disaster

Introduction

The Challenger Disaster refers to the accident in which the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded barely a minute after liftoff and killed all seven people on board. This incident is cited as an example of what can happen when members of an organization fail to blow the whistle on what they recognize as a potential problem (Werhane, 2007).

The Space Shuttle Challenger flew nine successful missions prior to the incident in 1986. This mission was unique in that, on this flight, Challenger was scheduled to carry the first teacher to fly in space, Christa McAuliffe. The mission was also unusual in that, from the start, it was plagued by anomalies. Although liftoff was originally set for January 22, weather delays and equipment servicing issues delayed liftoff until January 28 (McConnell, 2007).

A subsequent investigation identified the cause of the disaster—the failure of an O-ring seal. It was determined that the O-ring was not designed properly. Regardless, had the shuttle lifted off on January 22 as originally planned, it is likely that the launch would have been successful. It was the abnormally low temperature on January 28 coupled with the design defect that caused the disaster to occur (Lewis, 2008).

Discussion

In fact, engineers and managers at Morton Thiokol, the manufacturer of the O-rings, were not entirely surprised by what happened. On the night before the fated day, several of them protested the launch because of the impending bad weather predicted for the next morning. First, they believed that choppy sea waters might make it considerably difficult to recover the shuttle boosters after the launch. Second, they feared that ice in the booster support troughs might interfere with the shuttle orbiter (Boisjoly, 2008). Third, they were openly concerned about the weather—they admitted that they could not predict the behavior of the O-rings that sealed the booster joints, because the O-rings had not been tested at temperatures below 50°F (degrees Fahrenheit). The temperature was predicted to be about 30°F at the time of the scheduled launch (Boisjoly, 2007).

Thiokol signed off on the launch over the objections of the engineers. Managers at Thiokol saw their first priority as to execute the launch. Since there had been 24 successful launches prior to this one, they did not see any reason this launch would not be successful as well. Moreover, the engineers could not prove that the O-rings and shuttle orbiters would not function at temperatures below 50°F. The engineers did not blow the whistle—they did not report their concerns to anyone other than their managers (Werhane, 2007). On January 28, 1986, at 11:39 EST, Space Shuttle Challenger disintegrated, 73 seconds into its flight.

Many lessons were learned on this day. Manned space flights did not resume in the United States for more than 2 years after the Challenger Disaster. Only after technical modifications were made and after NASA management implemented stricter regulations regarding quality control and safety did the space shuttle program resume on September 28, 1988, with the flight of Space Shuttle Discovery (McConnell, ...