Challenger Disaster

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

EARLY WARNINGS 0. EARLY WARNINGS - Story Preface 1. EARLY WARNINGS 2. AN ACCIDENT ROOTED IN HISTORY 3. WARNINGS IGNORED 4. LAST-MINUTE PLEAS 5. THE FINAL MINUTES 6. THE EXPLOSION 7. THE LAST WORDS 8. THE HORROR OF DESTRUCTION 9. THE UNTHINKABLE 10. THE TRANSCRIPTS 11. CHALLENGER'S AFTERMATH The official insignia, for Challenger’s STS 51-L mission, includes something unusual: an apple. It symbolizes that a teacher was part of the shuttle’s 7-member crew. A potential disaster had loomed long before that fateful January day. Although NASA had flown twenty-four successful shuttle missions before STS 51-L (the official name for the January 1986 Challenger mission), other flights had experienced lesser versions of the same problem which caused the Challenger explosion. Neither the astronauts, nor their families, knew about it. But the manufacturer of the shuttle's solid rocket booster (SRB) and solid rocket motor (SRM) knew. So did some of the management officials at NASA. Roger Boisjoly a Morton Thiokol engineer, did his best to warn both his employer and NASA. He, and others, knew about the design flaw. But the people Boisjoly reported to wouldn't listen. And the people who made the ultimate decisions at NASA weren't told. See Alignments to State and Common Core standards for this story online at: http://www.awesomestories.com/asset/AcademicAlignment/EARLY-WARNINGS-Challenger-Disaster See Learning Tasks for this story online at: http://www.awesomestories.com/asset/AcademicActivities/EARLY-WARNINGS-Challenger-Disaster Media Stream Challenger Mission STS 51-L NASA image, online via National Air and Space Museum at the Smithsonian. PD View this asset at: http://www.awesomestories.com/asset/view/Challenger-Mission-STS-51-L Roger Boisjoly - Warned Morton Thiokol About O-rings Image online, courtesy Online Ethics Center at the National Academy of Engineering. View this asset at: http://www.awesomestories.com/asset/view/Roger-Boisjoly-Warned-Morton-Thiokol-About-O-rings.

Copy Link

Recommended publications

The Challenger Disaster
Engineering Ethics Case Study: The Challenger Disaster Course No: LE3-001 Credit: 3 PDH Mark Rossow, PhD, PE, Retired Continuing Education and Development, Inc. 22 Stonewall Court Woodcliff Lake, NJ 07677 P: (877) 322-5800 [email protected] Engineering Ethics Case Study: The Challenger Disaster Mark P. Rossow, P.E., Ph.D. © 2015 Mark P. Rossow All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced in any manner without the written permission of the author. 2 Preface On January 28, 1986, the Space Shuttle Challenger was destroyed in a disastrous fire shortly after liftoff. All passengers aboard the vehicle were killed. A presidential commission was formed to investigate the cause of the accident and found that the O-ring seals had failed, and, furthermore, that the seals had been recognized as a potential hazard for several years prior to the disaster. The commission’s report, Report to the President by the Presidential Commission on the Space Shuttle Challenger Accident, stated that because managers and engineers had known in advance of the O-ring danger, the accident was principally caused by a lack of communication between engineers and management and by poor management practices. This became the standard interpretation of the cause of the Challenger disaster and routinely appears in popular articles and books about engineering, management, and ethical issues. But the interpretation ignores much of the history of how NASA and the contractor’s engineers had actually recognized and dealt with the O-ring problems in advance of the disaster. When this history is considered in more detail, the conclusions of the Report to the President become far less convincing.
[Show full text]
What Lessons Can We Learn from the Report of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board for Engineering Ethics?
Technè 10:1 Fall 2006 Murata, From the Challenger to Columbia/...35 From Challenger to Columbia: What lessons can we learn from the report of the Columbia accident investigation board for engineering ethics? Junichi Murata University of Tokyo, Department of History and Philosophy of Science, 3-8-1 Komaba, Meguro-ku, Tokyo, Japan phone: +81 3 5454 6693, fax: +81 3 5454 6978 email: [email protected] Abstract: One of the most important tasks of engineering ethics is to give engineers the tools required to act ethically to prevent possible disastrous accidents which could result from engineers’ decisions and actions. The space shuttle Challenger disaster is referred to as a typical case in almost every textbook. This case is seen as one from which engineers can learn important lessons, as it shows impressively how engineers should act as professionals, to prevent accidents. The Columbia disaster came seventeen years later in 2003. According to the report of the Columbia accident investigation board, the main cause of the accident was not individual actions which violated certain safety rules but rather was to be found in the history and culture of NASA. A culture is seen as one which desensitized managers and engineers to potential hazards as they dealt with problems of uncertainty. This view of the disaster is based on Dian Vaughan’s analysis of the Challenger disaster, where inherent organizational factors and culture within NASA had been highlighted as contributing to the disaster. Based on the insightful analysis of the Columbia report and the work of Diane Vaughan, we search for an alternative view of engineering ethics.
[Show full text]
Whistleblowers: Corporate Anarchists Or Heroes? Towards a Judicial Perspective David Culp
Hofstra Labor and Employment Law Journal Volume 13 | Issue 1 Article 3 1995 Whistleblowers: Corporate Anarchists or Heroes? Towards a Judicial Perspective David Culp Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarlycommons.law.hofstra.edu/hlelj Part of the Law Commons Recommended Citation Culp, David (1995) "Whistleblowers: Corporate Anarchists or Heroes? Towards a Judicial Perspective," Hofstra Labor and Employment Law Journal: Vol. 13: Iss. 1, Article 3. Available at: http://scholarlycommons.law.hofstra.edu/hlelj/vol13/iss1/3 This document is brought to you for free and open access by Scholarly Commons at Hofstra Law. It has been accepted for inclusion in Hofstra Labor and Employment Law Journal by an authorized administrator of Scholarly Commons at Hofstra Law. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Culp: Whistleblowers: Corporate Anarchists or Heroes? Towards a Judicia WHISTLEBLOWERS: CORPORATE ANARCHISTS OR HEROES? TOWARDS A JUDICIAL PERSPECTIVE David Culp' This article explores the whistleblower's plight.' Inside the corpora- tion, everyone, or almost everyone, hates them. They are reviled by corporatemanagement and shunned by co-workers. This article exam- ines whether the legal system adequatelyprotects whistleblowers and delineates the direction the law should take to safeguardthem while at the same time protect companies againstmalicious or badfaith actions by disgruntledemployees. I. THE CHALLENGER LAUNCH - DISASTER IN THE EMERALD CITY We all know the story. On January 28, 1986, in sub-freezing weather, the space shuttle Challenger began its lift-off from the Kennedy Space Center and exploded just seventy-three seconds into its flight, killing all seven astronauts trapped inside the inferno.2 The Rogers Commission, formed to investigate the disaster, concluded that the explosion occurred due to the seal failure of a solid rocket booster joint.3 The death of the astronauts should never have happened.
[Show full text]
Lessons from the Challenger Launch Decision Additional Resources
National Aeronautics and Space Administration NASA Case Study Resources GSFC-1041R-1 Rev. 07/22/2011 Lessons from the Challenger Launch Decision Additional Resources NASA Resources • Report of the Presidential Commission on the Space Shuttle Challenger Accident. 1986. URL: http://history.nasa.gov/rogersrep/genindex.htm • NASA History Program Office – Challenger STS 51-L Accident (Multiple links to relevant resources on NASA and Non-NASA sites) URL: http://history.nasa.gov/sts51l.html Other Challenger Case Studies • The Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster: A Study in Organizational Ethics (7 pages) URL: http://pirate.shu.edu/~mckenndo/pdfs/The%20Space%20Shuttle%20Challenger%20Disaster. pdf • The Final Voyage of the Challenger, by Oscar Hauptman & George Iwaki. Harvard Business School. November 1990. URL: http://hbr.org/product/final-voyage-of-the-challenger/an/691037-PDF-ENG Copyright © 2011 by United States Government as represented by the Administrator of NASA. All Rights Reserved. Feedback may be sent to Dr. Ed Rogers, Chief Knowledge Officer, at [email protected] or (301) 286-4467. Related documents available: http://gsfcir.gsfc.nasa.gov/casestudies. Challenger Launch Decision GSFC-1041T-1 Papers & Articles Arnold, Vanessa D., Mailey, John C. 1988. “Communication: the Missing Link in the Challenger Disaster.” Business Communication Quarterly 51(4):12-14. Boisjoly, Russell P., Curtis, Ellen Foster, and Mellican, Eugene. 1989. “Roger Boisjoly and the Challenger Disaster: The Ethical Dimensions.” Journal of Business Ethics 8(4):217-230. Abstract: This case study focuses on Roger Boisjoly's attempt to prevent the launch of the Challenger and subsequent quest to set the record straight despite negative consequences.
[Show full text]
Our Ethical Findings in the Challenger Disaster Presenter: Francisco Lara the NASA Situation
Our Ethical Findings in the Challenger Disaster Presenter: Francisco Lara The NASA Situation • Cost efficient space transport system. • Compete with Russian Space Program. • US Government pressure to see results. • Gain public interest. • NASA came up with the Space Shuttle Transport System. Space Shuttle Transport System • Reusable manned vehicle. • Transport payloads into orbit and back. • Consists of three main Parts: – The Orbiter – The External Tank (ET) – Solid-Rocket Boosters (SRBs) The Orbiter • Resembles an Aircraft. • Three different operational modes: – Launched as a Rocket. – Operates as a Spacecraft. – Lands as an Aircraft. External Tank (ET) • Only part that is not recycled. • Carries fuel for space shuttle’s 3 main engines. • Feeds orbiter with fuel. Solid-Rocket Boosters (SRBs) • Responsible for takeoff. • 11 individual segments. • Recovered, maintained and reused. • Segments reinforced with: – Fiber glass tape. – Rubber seal bands known as O-Rings. • Major part of Challenger Disaster Investigation A Formula For Disaster • Reasons for catastrophe: – Faulty design of O-rings. – Low temperatures at launch time. – “No Launch” recommendation overruled. – Negligence of technical problems. – Re-usage of SRBs. The O-Ring Situation at Morton Thiokol • Morton Thiokol (MT): Builder of the SRB. • Knew about O-ring problems for over a year. • Roger Boisjoly: MT Employee, discovers O-ring malfunction. • Concluded that hot gases were seeping through during rocket’s burn. • Deformation of O-rings in low temperatures. Roger Boisjoly’s Course of Action Jan 1985, discovers Consulted colleague, Jun 1985, post flight problems & reports suggested to test his inspection, found to superior findings primary seals eroded Feb 1985, presented Mar 1985, Resiliency July 1985, presented problem to NASA.
[Show full text]
Roger Boisjoly and the Challenger Disaster: Disloyal Employee Or Courageous Whistle-Blow>Er?
Ethical Treatment of Employees 175 Part of BP's training problems, the panel "horrendously expensive" but has become more concluded, stems from a lack of financial back affordable in recent years, Erickson said. ing and workforce. That was especially evident Union officials hope to finalize new training at Texas City, where the training budget plum agreements with BP at a meeting at the end of meted from $2.8 million in 1998 to $1.7 mil this month, said Kim Nibarger, coordinator of lion in 2005, the year of the blast, the report the United Steelworkers' Triangle of Prevention stated. Full-time employees devoted to training Program. He said the union safety trainers have also dipped from 28 to 9 in the same period. long favored a more hands-on approach to train Even then, some of those training coordinators ing than the use of computer programs and test spent as little as 5 percent of their time actually ing. "We train on the small-group level," he said. training, the report said. Steve Erickson, exec "That's the way adults learn." utive director of the Gulf Coast Process Tech nology Alliance, said BP isn't the only oil Questions company that has reduced training positions in recent years as more training has been done 1. What would Faden and Beauchamp say by computer. Erickson, whose alliance advo about BP's worker safety practices? Explain. cates the hiring of degreed process technicians, 2. What would Boatright say about BP's said computer training is a good alternative to worker safety practices? Explain.
[Show full text]
PUB TYPE Reports-Research/Technical (143) Speeches/Conference Papers (150) EDRS PRICE MF01/PC01 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS Accountability; Communication Research
DOCUMENT RESUME ED 288 229 CS 505 810 AUTHOR Stewart, Lea P. TITLE Where Were the Whistleblowers? The Case of Allan McDonald and Roger Boisjoly. PUB DATE Nov 87 NOTE 18p.; Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Speech Communication Association (73rd, Boston, MA, November 5-8, 19;7). PUB TYPE Reports - Research/Technical (143) Speeches /Conference Papers (150) EDRS PRICE MF01/PC01 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS Accountability; Communication Research; Employee Responsibility; *Employer Employee Relationship; Management Systems; *Organizational Communication; *Power Structure; Public Relations; Space Exploration; Work Environment IDENTIFIERS Challenger Disaster; *Whistleblowing ABSTRACT Employees who "blow the whistle" on their company because they believe it is engaged in practices that are illegal, immoral, or harmful to the public, often face grave consequences for their actions, in:auding demotion, harassment, forced resignation, or termination. The case of Allan McDonald and Roger Boisjoly, engineers who blew the whistle on Morton Thiokol's poor management practices when the company agreed to launch the shuttle Challenger even after concerns for safety had been expressed, illustrates the problems involved in whistleblowing. McDonald was reassigned and Boisjoly took disability leave to recover from depression over the Challenger disaster. The whistleblower, if his or her charges are correct, characterizes one of the dilemmas of complex organizations: how to restrict the flow of information up the organizational hierarchy and still insure that accurate, useful information reaches organizational decision makers. NASA has since instituted au anonymous whistleblowing system, retaining an outside firm to investigate the claim before it reaches NASA personnel. However, it is naive to think that "a message sent is a message received," and it does not appear as though the new system will avert such disasters as the Challenger explosion.
[Show full text]
ACR 51 Page 1
ACR 51 Page 1 Date of Hearing: April 19, 2021 ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON TRANSPORTATION Laura Friedman, Chair ACR 51 (Gabriel) – As Introduced March 18, 2021 SUBJECT: Dr. Sally Ride Memorial Highway SUMMARY: Designates the portion of State Highway 101 between the junction with Interstate 405, at postmarker 17.165 and Balboa Boulevard, at postmarker 19.217, as the Dr. Sally Ride Memorial Highway. EXISTING LAW: Assigns the Department of Transportation (Caltrans) the responsibility of operating and maintaining state highways. This includes the installation and maintenance of highway signs. FISCAL EFFECT: Unknown, but the measure requests that Caltrans only erect the appropriate signage upon receiving donations from non-state sources covering the cost. COMMENTS: Sally Kristen Ride was born on May 26, 1951, in Encino, California. Her father was a political science professor at Santa Monica College, and her mother worked as a volunteer counselor at women’s correctional facility. Both parents were elders in the Presbyterian Church. From an early age, Dr. Ride gravitated toward math and science. She was strong-willed and athletic, and became so obsessed with playing football in the street that her parents pushed her into tennis lessons because it was a safer sport. She was soon playing in tournaments. Dr. Ride attended Westlake School for Girls, a prep school in Los Angeles. Dr. Okie was her schoolmate, and wrote that she and Dr. Ride, both on scholarship, felt out of place among the actors’ daughters and “Bel Air belles” at the school. Dr. Ride did not have to work hard for good grades, called herself an underachiever and refused to feign interest if she was bored in class.
[Show full text]
Roger Boisjoly and the Challenger Space Shuttle by Dave Potter, Palousemindfulness.Com
Roger Boisjoly and the Challenger Space Shuttle by Dave Potter, palousemindfulness.com In the fall of 2000, I had a series of conversations with Roger Boisjoly one of the Morton-Thiokol engineers who worked on the Challenger Space Shuttle which exploded on January 28, 1986, shortly after launch, killing all seven crew members. This is his story: Tuesday 11:40am EST, Jan 28, 1986 - Roger Boisjoly was walking past the door to the viewing room when Bob Ebeling, another engineer in the Solid Rocket Motor group, popped out to ask if he was coming in to watch the launch. It was common for the engineers to gather to see the lift-off, because their employer, Morton Thiokol, supplied NASA with the booster rockets for the Space Shuttle. But Roger had a sick feeling about this one. He told Bob he didn’t want to see the launch, but Bob kept prodding, and they went in together. Roger remembers: “The room was filled so I seated myself on the floor close to the screen and leaned against Bob’s legs, as he was seated in a chair. The boosters ignited and as the vehicle cleared the support tower, I whispered to Bob, “We just dodged a bullet.” The reason I made this statement was that the propellant experts had told us that the boosters would explode at ignition if we developed a leak in the case. At approximately T+60 seconds, Bob leaned over and whispered to me that he had just completed a prayer of thanks to the Lord for a successful launch.
[Show full text]
The Challenger Disaster [The Information Given Below Is from the Journal of the American Statistical Association 84, Pages 945-957, December, 1989
22S:101 Biostatistics: J. Huang 1 The Challenger Disaster [The information given below is from the Journal of the American Statistical Association 84, pages 945-957, December, 1989. Available in the Math Library.] On January 28, 1986 the space shuttle Challenger exploded. Seven astronauts died because two large rubber O-rings leaked during takeoff. These rings had lost their resiliency because of the low temperature at the time of the flight. The air temperature was about 0o Celsius, and the temperature of the O-rings about 6 degrees below that. 22S:101 Biostatistics: J. Huang 2 On the night of January 27, 1986, the night before the space shuttle Challenger accident, there was a three-hour teleconference among people at Morton Thiokol (manufacturer of the solid rocket motor), Marshall Space Flight Center [NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) center for motor design control], and Kennedy Space Center. The discussion focused on the forecast of a 31o F temperature for launch time the next morning, and the effect of low temperature on O-ring performance. A data set, Figure 1 below, played an important role in the discussion. Each plotted point represents a shuttle flight that experienced thermal distress in the field-joint O-rings; the x axis shows the temperature at launch and the y axis shows the the damage index to the O-rings. The O- rings seal the field joints of the solid rocket motors, which boost the shuttle into orbit. Based on the U-shaped configuration of points it was concluded that there was no evidence from the historical data about a temperature effect.
[Show full text]
The Challenger Disaster: Making It Personal Richard Kunz1
The Challenger Disaster: Making it Personal Richard Kunz1 Abstract – Few of our current engineering students were born when, 25 years ago, the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded. Since then, the disaster has been the subject of countless case studies in courses on engineering ethics, technical communication, and management systems. With the passage of time, the relevance of these studies to today’s students may be open to question. The author, as a 15-year employee at Thiokol Corporation, worked alongside several individuals closely involved in the Challenger launch decision. As such, he was second-hand witness to a uniquely human side of engineering that applies today as it did a quarter century ago. Keywords: Space Shuttle Challenger, engineering ethics, professional practices, technical communication INTRODUCTION The Space Shuttle Challenger disaster fundamentally changed the way the public views NASA, the way the public perceives the engineering profession, and the way engineers view themselves. The decision to launch, the technical reasons for the failure, and the management culture at the time of the accident have all been the subject of intense scrutiny, a Presidential Commission, congressional investigations, and numerous reports, papers and books. From an educational perspective, the incident has provided the opportunity to explore questions of engineering ethics, the relation between engineering and management, and the effective use of technical communication in conveying risk. It is a rare engineering curriculum that does not expose its students to at least one case study on the subject of Challenger. The year 2011 marks the 25th anniversary of the Challenger tragedy. Few of our current engineering undergraduates were born when Challenger went down.
[Show full text]
Information to Users
INFORMATION TO USERS This manuscript has been reproduced from the microfilm master. UMI films the text direct^ from the origmal or copy submitted. Thus, some thesis and dissertation copies are m typewriter free, while others may be from any type of conqmter printer. The quality of this reprodnction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. Broken or indistmct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and photographs, print bleedthrough, substandard margins, and improper alignment can adversety afi&ct rqnoduction. fri the unlikely event that the author did not send UMI a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if unauthorized copyri^ material had to be removed, a note wfll indicate the deletion. Oversize materials (e g., mq>s, drawings, charts) are reproduced by sectioning the original, b%inning at the upper left-hand comer and continuing fix>m left to right in equal sections with small overlaps. Each original is also photognqthed in one exposure and is included in reduced ft>rm at the bade of the book. Photognq>hs included in the original manuscript have been reproduced xerographicalty in this copy. Ifigher quality fi” x 9” black and Write photographic prints are available for any photographs or illustrations appearing in this copy for an additional charge. Contact UMI directty to order. UMI A Bdl A Howell &ifoiinati<m Conquiiy 300 North Zeeb Road, Ann A lter MI 48106-1346 USA 313/761-4700 800/521-0600 UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA IMAGES OF DECISION MAKING AND THE LAUNCH OF THE CHALLENGER SPACE SHUTTLE A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE FACULTY in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY By TERENCE MICHAEL GARRETT Norman, Oklahoma 1997 UMI Number: 9810313 Copyright 1997 by Garrett, Terence Michael All rights reserved.
[Show full text]