In addition, the Rogers Commission made specific recommendations related to these issues. They suggested that NASA restructure its management system, including bringing astronauts into management positions, which will increase attention to flight safety issues. They suggested a full examination of all critical systems before conducting any more shuttle launches. They were instructed to establish an Office of Safety, Reliability and Quality control. These suggestions bring safety back to prominence in decision-making, and should downplay the effect of pressure to meet deadlines (Harwood, 1986).
The Rogers Commission also criticized NASA's communications and instructed them to devise ways that information flows from bottom to top as well as from top to bottom. In addition they expressed concern about a tendency for management to be somewhat isolated from others, further interfering with communication (Harwood, 1986). If middle management had been able to communicate effectively with upper levels in 1986, the GDSS would have heard about O. ring concerns from within NASA as well as from M-T.
The Rodgers Commission, in addition to making numerous suggestions about how to improve the structure of shuttles and ways to increase safety for the astronauts, noted the management decisions that contributed so significantly to the disaster. They particularly noted that decision makers were under considerable pressure to maintain ambitious flight schedules (Harwood, 1986). This pressure stemmed from both political and economic forces. NASA will have to decide whether its goals are one of scientific inquiry or of making money through space exploration. When it is recognized that these...
There was one thing or the other to delay the launch of the Challenger, until the D-Day, when the shuttle was launched at 11:38 AM as against the scheduled take off time of 9:38 AM on January 28. About seventy three seconds into the mission, the Challenger exploded in mid air, and all the seven crew members were killed instantaneously. For the hundreds of people, the family and friends
Challenger Launch Decision JOE KILMINSTER'S ACCOUNTABILITY IN THE CHALLENGER DISASTER On January 28, 1986, the Challenger, one of the reusable space shuttle by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration or NASA, was launched off at the John F. Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida but exploded 72 seconds after liftoff. The launch was approved and ordered by the management of the Morton Thiokol, Inc., an aerospace company, that manufactures solid propellant
Judgment in Managerial Decision Making Almost everyone has, at some point, been a victim of groupthink -- perhaps by thinking of speaking up in a meeting, and then deciding not to, so as not to appear unsupportive of the team's stand. Although such occurrences are quite common, and may appear quite normal, they are indicative of faulty thinking. Groupthink is, in basic terms, "a phenomenon that occurs when the desire for
As they pushed engineers to continually test the limits when it came to the launches. This is because, the leadership inside NASA and at the different subcontractors created an atmosphere that made this possible. (Gross 1997) (Space Shuttle Challenger Case Study n.d.) The Influence of the Media Given the high profile nature of the program, meant that there were considerable pressures to be ready for the next shuttle launch. This is
Too often, important issues are overlooked because people fail to realize that there are deeper concerns that are not being considered. When managers address problems, they have to frame them the right way, so anyone they communicate with sees the value of what they are trying to say and the goals they are attempting to reach (Bazerman & Moore, 2008). This was something that can and should have been
Space Shuttle Columbia Disaster: What Happened and Lessons The Space Shuttle Columbia (Columbia) disaster occurred on the 1st of February, 2003. On its return journey from space following its 28th mission, Columbia disintegrated after re-entering the earth's atmosphere, killing the entire crew.[footnoteRef:1] Whereas technical failures were responsible for the disasters, investigations have extensively faulted deficiencies in NASA's organisational culture, especially in terms of organisational structure, communication, and decision making processes.[footnoteRef:2],[footnoteRef:3] This
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