SPACE SHUTTLE LAUNCH, CHALLENGER
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) reviewed the first reusable space shuttle in 1976. One of these shuttles was scheduled to launch in 1986, Jan 28. The weather conditions on that day were not conducive for the event as it was too cold to launch the Challenger.
As a result the launch was delayed as they were people who were not sure if it would normally launch without any problem given the fact that weather conditions were not conducive.
At 11:39am, the challenger was launched and 73 seconds after liftoff, it broke up. The disaster killed 7 people who were on board. The reason for the failure was due to the rubber O-rings that failed because of cold temperatures.This prompted NASA to halt …show more content…
The decision of the engineers changed when the NASA's level III manager told the chief engineer to ""take off his engineering hat and put on his management cap”, showing that the goals of the group were put first ahead of the safety.
Based on avoiding the groupthink, the disaster could have been avoided if the group looked outside opinions from people with different backgrounds when they realized that certain safety considerations needed to be made. The decision to lunch should have had clear rules on how it was supposed to be made because the documentation shows that if the engineers went against NASA's intentions they would risk losing revenues in the future.
The leader (NASA's level III manager) should not have been allowed to state the preferences and expectations during the decision making process. This is indicated by the manager statement "My God, Thiokol, when do you want me to launch, next April?” This might have affected other group members' decision in fear of opposing the leadership. By his statement, the manager showed that he preferred the launch to proceed as planned and to not be
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) reviewed the first reusable space shuttle in 1976. One of these shuttles was scheduled to launch in 1986, Jan 28. The weather conditions on that day were not conducive for the event as it was too cold to launch the Challenger.
As a result the launch was delayed as they were people who were not sure if it would normally launch without any problem given the fact that weather conditions were not conducive.
At 11:39am, the challenger was launched and 73 seconds after liftoff, it broke up. The disaster killed 7 people who were on board. The reason for the failure was due to the rubber O-rings that failed because of cold temperatures.This prompted NASA to halt …show more content…
The decision of the engineers changed when the NASA's level III manager told the chief engineer to ""take off his engineering hat and put on his management cap”, showing that the goals of the group were put first ahead of the safety.
Based on avoiding the groupthink, the disaster could have been avoided if the group looked outside opinions from people with different backgrounds when they realized that certain safety considerations needed to be made. The decision to lunch should have had clear rules on how it was supposed to be made because the documentation shows that if the engineers went against NASA's intentions they would risk losing revenues in the future.
The leader (NASA's level III manager) should not have been allowed to state the preferences and expectations during the decision making process. This is indicated by the manager statement "My God, Thiokol, when do you want me to launch, next April?” This might have affected other group members' decision in fear of opposing the leadership. By his statement, the manager showed that he preferred the launch to proceed as planned and to not be