Introduction To Columbia Space Shuttle Disaster

The challenger disaster called for certain changes in the NASA organizational structure, culture and operations. The Rogers Commission carried out a full investigation into the causes of the disaster and recommended to NASA certain actions to mitigate future incidents. First of all, there was a creation of a Solid Rocket Motor Joint redesign team who would also analyse the sealing system (NATA Technical Reports Centre, 2010).

Seventy three seconds into its 10th flight, on January 28, 1986, the Space Shuttle Challenger broke apart over the Atlantic Ocean, killing the seven crew members on board [1]. The Challenger was the second space shuttle constructed by NASA and had completed nine successful missions prior to the disaster. Following the accident, the shuttle program was suspended for 32 months as President Ronald Regan appointed a Commission, chaired by William P. Rogers and known as the Rogers Commission, to investigate the cause of the accident [1].

The Columbia mission, STS-107, was interesting because the public was more aware of the risk that was being taken upon re-entry. During the launch a piece of insulating foam broke away from the external tank surface, striking the left wing. In previous missions there had been evidence of this occurring which to engineers was seen as minor. In the case of the Columbia craft failure, it was more serious because the damaged section of the wing was damaged to the extent of which it allowed hot atmospheric gases to penetrate the structure of the wing, pulling it apart, rendering the craft unstable.

To begin with, quality management is defined as, “the act of overseeing all activities and tasks needed to maintain a desired level

Senior leadership must determine and direct the level of quality that is acceptable within the organization. Leadership should prioritize areas of quality and use data based on benchmarks from other facilities. (Dlugacz, 2006). In addition the author states there are some important areas that must be monitored for quality. Compliance must be followed by leaders and all

In 28 January 1986, the Space Shuttle Challenger was launched for the Last time and exploded less than 2 minutes after the lift-off resulting in the deaths of all seven crew members on board (Space shuttle challenger: Wikipedia, 2006).

During the year of 1986, on January the twenty sixth, a horrific shock was felt around the country. After Neil Armstrong’s landing on the moon, Americans felt a great sense of national pride and invincibility but many Americans learned on that fateful day that nobody is invincible; one of the worst catastrophes of the United States space program occurred on that day. About forty five seconds after liftoff, Americans witnessed the destruction of the breathtaking challenger space shuttle. Even though the disaster caused nationwide sadness, the reasons for its failure are clear. Named after the British ship that sailed across the Atlantic hundreds of years, could carry more than two thousand pounds the challenger was truly a glorious achievement.

On an unusually cool Florida morning in January 1986, the space shuttle Challenger exploded 50,000 feet above ground just moments after liftoff killing seven crew members onboard (Palmer, Dunford, and Akin, 2009). A presidential commission, dubbed “the Rogers Commission” (hereafter, the Commission) after former Secretary of State William Rogers, was appointed to investigate the cause of the disaster. Although mechanical failure of an O-ring seal in one of the rocket boosters was identified as the physical cause, the investigation revealed something much more disheartening; organizational deficiencies at NASA had allowed potential safety hazards to be disregarded. The disastrous consequences of NASA’s organizational failure prompted calls

The Shuttle program was formally launched on January 5th, 1972 but the first flight took place on April 12, 1981, with the Columbia Shuttle and the STS-1 (mission 1), the first shuttle orbital flight. The space shuttle program finished with its last mission, STS-135 and Atlantis, which came to a conclusion on July 21, 2011, with the final shuttle landing and setting an end to the program.

On January 1986, the Challenger Shuttle blew up shortly after it took off. The accidents took seven lives including aerospace engineers, the specialties pilot, and scientists. The tragic accidents occurred 73 seconds after the flight and caused by the fuel leak from one of the two Solid Rocket Boosters. The explosion represented one of the most significant events in 1980s. However, 17 years after the explosion of the Challenger Shuttle, the Shuttle Colombia also had an in-flight explosion leading to the loss of seven lives.

In March, 1970, President Richard Milhous Nixon “opted for the shuttle-tended space base as a long-range goal but deferred going ahead with the space station pending development of the shuttle vehicle” (NASA,1986). Thus the Space Shuttle, which was considered as merely the transport element of a broad earlier, was reused and became the concentration of NASA's near- term future. Challenger, as NASA’s second orbiter which was put into service after Columbia in Space Shuttle program, began its maiden flight on April 4th, 1983. It made nine flights in total prior to 1986. Owing to payload changes, cold weather, and other technical problems, Challenger was rescheduled continually and finally determined to launch from

In 1986 when the space shuttle Challenger launched from Kennedy Space Center people watched in awe for a little more than a minute before the shuttle exploded in flight. This was the first of only two major accidents that occurred during over two decades of NASA’s shuttle program and many would consider it to be a fluke that could not have been prevented or predicted. In truth the Challenger disaster was an accident waiting to happen and was a symptom of systemic problems that were occurring at NASA during that era. The 1986 space shuttle Challenger disaster was cause by a number of factors including structural failure of the shuttle, a change in NASA’s work environment from the days of the

The Challenger has had a total of 10 space missions. Including the Challenger Tragedy. The first ship was the STS-6 spaceship. It was launched on April 4, 1983. The mission was to deploy the first Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS) into orbit. There were 4 people on that spaceship. Their names were Paul J. Weitz, Karol J. Bobko, F. Story Musgrane, and Donald H. Peterson. They landed on April 9, 1983.

It was the Columbia’s 28th mission, which was originally scheduled to launch two years ago, on 11th of January, 2001, but was delayed 13 times due to different missions took priority in the two years period. On 16th January at 1210 a.m., a problem with the external tank attachment ring had discovered. Due to this fault, the ring plate might not meet the safety factor requirement of 1.4, ‘that is, able to withstand 1.4 times the maximum load expected in operation.’(CAIB 2003 p.33). Then, based on Columbia space shuttle had delayed for too long, the safety factor requirement was waived. The active manager of the launch team then gave a GO signal to the space shuttle. At 57 seconds after launched, Columbia received a wind shear which increased the aerodynamic force on the external tank. It might be one of the reasons that leads to the

On February 1, 2003, the space shuttle Columbia was just coming in for re-entry after being in space for almost a month, when it had spontaneously exploded over Texas. The seven crew members on the shuttle had lost their lives and an unforgettable image is burned into the memory of the American people. I will be discussing mainly about how USA Today has covered the disaster and provide examples as to how the agency makes it seem as though NASA was the one responsible for the disaster and how the news agency tries to make it seem as though NASA wasn’t concerned about the safety of its employees. I will also provide a small summary about each article that I mention.