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Title details for The Challenger Launch Decision by Diane Vaughan - Available

The Challenger Launch Decision

Risky Technology, Culture, and Deviance at NASA

by Diane Vaughan
ebook
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23 of 23 copies available
"An in-depth account of the events and personal actions which led to a great tragedy in the history of America's space program." —James D. Smith, former Solid Rocket Booster Chief, NASA, Marshall Space Flight Center
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.
"Vaughn finds the traditional explanation of the [Challenger] accident to be profoundly unsatisfactory . . . One by one, she unravels the conclusions of the Rogers Commission." —The New York Times
"A landmark study." —Atlantic
"Vaughn gives us a rare view into the working level realities of NASA . . . The cumulative force of her argument and evidence is compelling." —Scientific American

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    December 22, 2022

  • Formats

    • Kindle Book

    • OverDrive Read

      • ISBN: 9780226346960

    • EPUB ebook

      • ISBN: 9780226346960
      • File size: 10508 KB

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      January 29, 1996
      The loss of the Space Shuttle Challenger in 1986 is usually ascribed to NASA's decision to accept a safety risk to meet a launch schedule. Vaughan, a professor of sociology at Boston College, argues instead that the disaster's roots are to be found in the nature of institutional life. Organizations develop cultural beliefs that shape action and outcome, she notes. NASA's institutional history and group dynamics reflected a perception of competition for scarce resources, which fostered a structure that accepted risk-taking and corner-cutting as norms that shaped decision-making. Small, seemingly harmless modifications to technical and procedural standards collectively propelled the space agency toward disaster even though no specific rules were broken. While Vaughan's complex presentation will daunt general readers, her conclusion that the "normalization of deviance" builds error into all human systems is as compelling as it is pessimistic.

Formats

  • Kindle Book
  • OverDrive Read
  • EPUB ebook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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