The Space Shuttle Challenger disaster was a fatal incident in the United States space

program that occurred on January 28, 1986, when the Space Shuttle Challenger broke
apart 73 seconds into its flight, killing all seven crew members aboard. Find out the
engineering failure that caused the disaster. Are NASA Engineers responsible for the
disaster?

Figure 1: Cause map for the Challenger disaster.

Figure 2: Solid Rocket Motor Cross Section.

According to the Rogers Commission
Report, the commission found that the Challenger
accident was caused by a failure in the O-rings
sealing [1] the aft field joint on the right solid
rocket booster, causing pressurized hot gases and
eventually flame to "blow by" the O-ring and
contact the adjacent external tank, causing
structural failure. The failure of the O-rings was
attributed to a design flaw, as their performance
could be too easily compromised by factors
including the low temperature on the day of
launch [1].
The night before the launch, a group of five Morton Thiokol engineers had a
emergency meeting and expressed concerns to their superiors and NASA about the possible
failures to the O-rings as surrounding temperature (-8oC) fell below the “redline” temperature
(10oC) of the Solid Rocket Booster (SRB) thus urging for a delay in the launch [2, 3, 4].
Unfortunately, NASA officials and Morton Thiokol managers were concern that delays in
launch would damage commercial funding from investors. Therefore, warnings from the
engineers were unaddressed and defined as an acceptable risk.
Based on the report and testimonies from the engineers, the engineers from Morton
Thiokol are not to be blamed for the disaster as they have conveyed concerns about the
surrounding temperature (-8oC) before launch day which was below minimum functional
temperature of the O-rings of 10oC. Beyond that temperature, the rubber of the O-rings would
be hard and less flexible thus disallowing the O-rings to move out of its groove and form a
tight seal between two sections of the SRBs. Despite objections from the engineers,
management from NASA and Morton Thiokol unethically rejected their warnings and
commanded for the launch of the Challenger to proceed due to financial gain and publicity.
After the incident, the engineers were put under pressure to not testify to the negligence and
ignorance from NASA and Morton Thiokol management [2]. Therefore, NASA and Morton
Thiokol superiors are responsible for the Challenger accident as their ignorance for quality
and safety has led to the loss of 7 astronauts.

1. https://spaceflight.nasa.gov/outreach/SignificantIncidents/assets/rogers_commission_r
eport.pdf
2. https://www.the-scientist.com/news/challengers-whistle-blower-hero-and-outcast-
61571
3. https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/01/28/464744781/30-years-after-
disaster-challenger-engineer-still-blames-himself
4. https://er.jsc.nasa.gov/seh/explode.html