Texto en Español
Roger Boisjoly on the Challenger Disaster
VI. A Management Decision Overrides a Recommendation Not to Launch
Question:
What is the situation that Boisjoly faces now? He has presented his case. NASA has acted in a way that was unprecedented in Boisjoly's experience. They have put the burden of proof on those who belived it was risky to fly rather than on those who felt it was safe to fly. Fearing that NASA will not continue to make Morton Thiokol the sole contractor for the Solid Rocket Booster program if they insist on holding back the Challenger flight, management has reversed the decision made by engineering. Boisjoly doesn't have the hard data that he has been requesting since last summer and which is now needed to prove that low temperature is a major contributor in hot gas blow-by, and his job appears to be at stake. He has had over a year to work on the joint problem and in that time ten shuttle missions have flown successfully. Is there anything else that can be done at this point?
Answer: Inform the media.
Do you have contacts in the media who would be able to do something that would stop the flight?
Further actions to possibly take:
Supporting Materials to Aid Decision Making
- Morton Thiokol and the Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster
- Essay by Roger Boisjoly. A background summary of important events leading to the Challenger disaster starting with January, 1985, plus the specifics of the telecon meeting held the night prior to the launch at which an attempt was made to stop the launch by the Morton Thiokol engineers. In the essay he argues that the off-line telecon caucus by Morton Thiokol Management constituted the unethical decision-making forum which ultimately produced the management decision to launch Challenger without any restrictions.
- 7/31/85 Memo about O-Ring Erosion
- 8/22/85 Memo from A.R. Thompson on the Flight Seal
- What Went Wrong With the Solid Rocket Booster
- Morton Thiokol Wasatch Division Corporate Structure
- Report of the Presidential Commission on the Space Shuttle Challenger Accident
- Representation and Misrepresentation: Tufte and the Morton Thiokol Engineers on the Challenger