PROFESSIONAL ETHICS

CHALLENGER TRAGEDY

In the next class we need to discuses about the challenger tragedy, we are need to find the information about the challenger tragedy. For my part I need to search about the cause of the tragedy.

The Space Shuttle Challenger disaster is probably the most significant event in the history of spaceflight in terms of its impact on the general public and on the US space program. The death of a crew of seven, which for the first time included civilian astronaut Christa McAuliffe, in a fiery explosion broadcasted in national television for days after the accident left a mark in the public imagination.

Even deeper was the impact on the NASA. Blinded by the success of the early Shuttle flights, the Agency’s management had developed a careless attitude towards warnings coming from the engineering community. NASA had committed the Shuttle to an impossible schedule even before it entered in service in order to ensure funding. Over time, NASA management had grown increasingly impatient with the technical delays that operating such a complex machine required.

All that ended on the bitter cold morning of January 28th 1986, when seven astronauts lost their lives in front of family, friends, and millions of TV viewers. A vehicle that was celebrated for its technical prowess broke up 73 seconds into the flight, burning nearly 2 million liters of fuel in just a few seconds, creating a sinister cloud of gas that still plagues the memory of anyone who saw it.  

The cause of this tragedy is start at the morning of January 28 was usually cold, the engineer warned their supervisor that certain components particularly the rubber o-ring that sealed the joints of the shuttle's solid rockets boosters were vulnerable to failure of low temperature. But these warning went unheeded, and at 11.39 a.m. lifted off. the morton thiokol, the company that design the solid rocket booster had ignored warning about the potential issues. Other than that the manager were aware about of these design problem but also failed to take action.