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Challenger And Columbia Shuttle Disasters Essay

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Portfolio Project: The Challenger and Columbia Shuttle Disasters Introduction While driving frantically through the lush farmland of the Livermore Valley to rescue a 9-year who, along with her classmates had just witnessed the destruction of the Challenger on live television, the question of why was all consuming. Growing up in the sixties and witnessing the moon landing led many to believe NASA was infallible. However, nearly twenty years before Challenger, this proved untrue, as the dangers of space travel were tragically demonstrated when the crew of the Apollo 1 died in an onboard fire during a test run (Howell, 2012). Following the Challenger tragedy, President Reagan (1986, para. 8) stated, ‘We will never forget them, nor the last …show more content…

While root cause analysis of both sentinel events revealed mechanical and debris problems as causative factors, the underlying problem was much worse—NASA’s lax safety oversight and slipshod management. These findings uncovered what dozens, and likely lucky, successful missions had hid from the public. The country mourned the first tragedy, but demanded change, which made the loss of Columbia for similar reasons so stunning. Therefore, much of this paper concentrated on change resistance, as the inability to change organizations is usually attributed to the difficulties in changing people. Despite the distractions, leadership must push through this resistance or risk irrelevance in the marketplace. It is for good reasons, organizations use the lessons of the Challenger and Columbia disasters in all levels of leadership as a warning of the potential for harm when budget constraints, tight schedules, and deadlines allow flawed reasoning and egos to undermine safety and the decision-making

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