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 51L
10th mission for the
Challenger Shuttle
TISP Teachers In Space
Program
Christa McAuliffe
Politically Charged Launch
Christa was to appear via
television link during Reagans
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, criticality1 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.k12.ca.us/Classes/Social_Science/Challenger.html/C
hallenger.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://www4.nationalacademies.org/news.nsf/isbn/NI000494?
OpenDocument), (March 3, 1988)
An Accident Rooted In History
(http://spacelink.nasa.gov/NASA.Projects/Human.Exploration.and/Develo
pment.of.Space/Human.Space.Flight/Shuttle/Shuttle.Missions/Flight.025.S
TS-51-L/An.Accident.Rooted.in.History), (June 6, 1986)
The Challenger Accident
(http://www.me.utexas.edu/~uer/challenger/chall2.html#mechflaw), (1997)