Scribd Logo
Upload

Welcome to Scribd!

  • 28 views

    The Challenger Disaster: Risk Management

    Uploaded by

    Ruchi Chaudhary
    The Challenger disaster was caused by the failure of an O-ring seal in the right solid rocket booster 73 seconds after launch on January 28, 1986. This failure allowed flames to escape and destroy the external fuel tank. There were four main causes of the O-ring failure: pre-flight leak tests, O-ring erosion, joint rotation, and low temperatures at launch. Risk management processes at NASA failed to properly address known issues with the O-rings and low-temperature effects. Concerns raised by engineers were overridden by management pressures to launch.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    The Challenger Disaster: Risk Management

    Uploaded by

    Ruchi Chaudhary
    28 views11 pages
    The Challenger disaster was caused by the failure of an O-ring seal in the right solid rocket booster 73 seconds after launch on January 28, 1986. This failure allowed flames to escape and destroy the external fuel tank. There were four main causes of the O-ring failure: pre-flight leak tests, O-ring erosion, joint rotation, and low temperatures at launch. Risk management processes at NASA failed to properly address known issues with the O-rings and low-temperature effects. Concerns raised by engineers were overridden by management pressures to launch.

    Original Description:

    NASA challenger disaster

    Original Title

    Challenger Disaster

    Copyright

    © © All Rights Reserved

    Available Formats

    PPT, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Did you find this document useful?

    Is this content inappropriate?

    The Challenger disaster was caused by the failure of an O-ring seal in the right solid rocket booster 73 seconds after launch on January 28, 1986. This failure allowed flames to escape and destroy the external fuel tank. There were four main causes of the O-ring failure: pre-flight leak tests, O-ring erosion, joint rotation, and low temperatures at launch. Risk management processes at NASA failed to properly address known issues with the O-rings and low-temperature effects. Concerns raised by engineers were overridden by management pressures to launch.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as ppt, pdf, or txt
    28 views11 pages

    The Challenger Disaster: Risk Management

    Uploaded by

    Ruchi Chaudhary
    The Challenger disaster was caused by the failure of an O-ring seal in the right solid rocket booster 73 seconds after launch on January 28, 1986. This failure allowed flames to escape and destroy the external fuel tank. There were four main causes of the O-ring failure: pre-flight leak tests, O-ring erosion, joint rotation, and low temperatures at launch. Risk management processes at NASA failed to properly address known issues with the O-rings and low-temperature effects. Concerns raised by engineers were overridden by management pressures to launch.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as ppt, pdf, or txt
    You are on page 1of 11

    The Challenger Disaster

    Risk Management

    Jameson Smieja
    Andrew Tilstra
    Kurt Butz
    William Schaffer
    Fall 2004, University of Minnesota
    Risk Management

    The art and science of identifying, analyzing,


    and responding to risk
    The Challenger Mission 51L
    • 10th mission for the
    Challenger Shuttle
    • TISP – Teachers In Space
    Program
    – Christa McAuliffe
    • Politically Charged Launch
    – Christa was to appear via
    television link during Reagan’s
    State of the Union Address in
    1986
    Challenger Delays
    • Liftoff Initially Scheduled for 15:43 EST on Jan. 22, 1986
    • Delays in 61-C mission pushed liftoff to Jan. 23, then Jan. 24
    • Reset to Jan. 25 due to weather
    • Postponed another day due to launch processing problems
    • Rescheduled for 9:37 EST Jan. 27 due to weather
    • Delayed again due to equipment failure for 24 hours
    • Final 2 hour delay due to hardware interface module problems

    Liftoff: 11:38 EST January 28, 1986


    The Challenger Disaster
    73 Seconds After Liftoff
    What Went Wrong??
    • Failure of an “O-ring”
    seal in the solid-fuel
    rocket on the Space
    Shuttle Challenger's
    right side
    • Flames cut into main
    liquid fuel tank
    Four Main Causes of O-Ring Failure

    • Pre-flight Leak Tests


    • O-Ring Erosions
    • Joint Rotation
    • Low Temperatures
    Poor Risk Management
    • Risks were managed using Critical Items Lists
    – Criticality 1-Loss of Life or Ship
    – Criticality 2-Mission Aborted
    • CIL Flaws
    – Unreliable
    • In previous missions, criticality1 issues occurred but loss of
    life/ship did not
    – Negotiable
    • Identified risks could later be waived
    Known Potential Problems

    • O-rings were “Criticality 1” feature


    • O-ring seal failure on previous missions
    – Launch Constraint placed on subsequent
    launches
    • These constraints had been imposed and
    regularly waived by the SRB Project
    Manager
    Known Potential Problems
    • Very low ambient temperatures recognized as
    concern by Tiokol
    – O-ring performance at this temperature not understood
    • NASA officials pressured Tiokol to withdraw its
    concerns
    • Upper officials at NASA were unaware of these
    discussions and ignorantly approved launch
    References
    • “Space Shuttle Challenger 1986”
    (http://www.jlhs.nhusd.k12.ca.us/Classes/Social_Science/Challenger.ht
    ml/Challenger.html), (1996)
    • “Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster-A NASA Tragedy”
    (http://space.about.com/cs/challenger/a/challenger.htm)
    • “Expert Panel Recommends Improvements for Space Shuttle Safety
    Program”,
    (http://www4.nationalacademies.org/news.nsf/isbn/NI000494?OpenDo
    cument), (March 3, 1988)
    • “An Accident Rooted In History”
    (http://spacelink.nasa.gov/NASA.Projects/Human.Exploration.and/De
    velopment.of.Space/Human.Space.Flight/Shuttle/Shuttle.Missions/Flig
    ht.025.STS-51-L/An.Accident.Rooted.in.History), (June 6, 1986)
    • “The Challenger Accident”
    (http://www.me.utexas.edu/~uer/challenger/chall2.html#mechflaw),
    (1997)

    You might also like