Challenger Launch Decision

When the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded on January 28, 1986, millions of Americans became bound together in a single, historic moment. Many still vividly remember exactly where they were and what they were doing when they heard about the tragedy. Diane Vaughan recreates the steps leading up to that fateful decision, contradicting conventional interpretations to prove that what occurred at NASA was not skullduggery or misconduct but a disastrous mistake. Why did NASA managers, who not only had all the information prior to the launch but also were warned against it, decide to proceed? In retelling how the decision unfolded through the eyes of the managers and the engineers, Vaughan uncovers an incremental descent into poor judgment, supported by a culture of high-risk technology. She reveals how and why NASA insiders, when repeatedly faced with evidence that something was wrong, normalized the deviance so that it became acceptable to them. In a new preface, Vaughan reveals the ramifications for this book and for her when a similar decision-making process brought down NASA's Space Shuttle Columbia in 2003.


Contents:

List of Figures and Tables
Preface to the 2016 Edition
Preface

One: The Eve of the Launch
Two: Learning Culture, Revising History
Three: Risk, Work Group Culture, and the Normalization of Deviance
Four: The Normalization of Deviance, 1981-1984
Five: The Normalization of Deviance, 1985
Six: The Culture of Production
Seven: Structural Secrecy
Eight: The Eve of the Launch Revisited
Nine: Conformity and Tragedy
Ten: Lessons Learned

Appendix A: Cost/Safety Trade-Offs? Scrapping the Escape Rockets and the SRB Contract Award Decision
Appendix B: Supporting Charts and Documents
Appendix C: On Theory Elaboration, Organizations, and Historical Ethnography
Acknowledgments
Notes
Bibliography
Index