NASA

The NASA Space Shuttle Disaster
The purpose of this paper is to discuss the core organizational problems that led to the crash of the Space Shuttle Challenger in 1986, recommend alternative solutions that could have been used to possibly prevent the crash, and develop a retrospective action plan for the recommended solution. The paper will also discuss how NASA could evaluate the effectiveness of the recommended solution.

Core Issues:
The crash of the Challenger was a stark reminder that despite all the technological advances we have witnessed over the past century, the human element can not be ignored. Although the crash of the Challenger was technically due to mechanical failure caused by both miscalculated O-ring tolerances and subnormal Florida temperatures, the crash was actually the unnecessary result of several organizational issues within NASA. In fact, the shuttle program itself was on a collision course long before the Challenger lifted off due to an organizational s...