“My God, Thiokol. When do you want me to launch? Next April?” Senior NASA official on a conference call to the manufacturer of the solid boosters, when they recommended on the morning of the launch that it be postponed.
Every man-made disaster and catastrophe has at least six Cascade Events leading up to the final event, the catastrophe according to the Rule of Seven.
This is a quick read of the Cascade Events that led up to the devastating explosion that millions of people watched live as the Challenger and seven crew members (one, the first teacher to go up in space) were killed. The Challenger: Organizational Failure. Anatomy of Catastrophe which is free today on Amazon. We will shortly be removing all these shorts, since they are rolled up into two longer books: Shit Doesn’t Just Happen: The Gift of Failure.
I examine the Rule of Seven, and how human error plays a role in many catastrophes. Nothing happens in isolation or as a result of a single event. Thus, by learning from history, we can gain insight into preventing a similar catastrophe in the future. From the failure of management to understand the risks involved, to warnings on the day of launch by the manufacturer of a critical component being ignored, Challenger is a classic example of Organizational Failure.
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January 28, 2016 at 1:47 pm
Reblog: 30 Years Ago Today: Challenger by Bob Mayer | Rich Weatherly - Author
[…] “My God, Thiokol. When do you want me to launch? Next April?” Senior NASA official on a conference call to the manufacturer of the solid boosters, when they recommended on the morning of the launch that it be postponed. Click link for the entire post. Link […]
January 28, 2016 at 2:58 pm
Marcha's Two-Cents Worth
Boy, can I ever relate! I have a blog out there today on essentially the same thing. I worked at NASA for over 20 years, most of it in Safety so had a bird’s eye view of all those organizational failures and various other dirty little secrets.
January 28, 2016 at 7:21 pm
Mike Fuller Author
NASA ’69 to ’71 (Co-op college student work/study). Several of the people I worked with were on the investigation of Apollo 1. Chilling accounts of what they found out. Apollo 13 made it back and the engineers in the conference room jumped to their feet when the chutes appeared on the small television at the front of the room. Amazing people. Made the improbable possible.