The Challenger Disaster Risk Management Jameson Smieja Andrew

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 51 L • 10 th mission for the Challenger Shuttle • TISP – Teachers In Space Program – Christa Mc. Auliffe • 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, criticality 1 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. k 12. ca. us/Classes/Social_Science/Challenger. h tml/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: //www 4. nationalacademies. org/news. nsf/isbn/NI 000494? Open. Do 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. 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/chall 2. html#mechflaw), (1997)