Challenger Disaster Essay

The office of President of the United States has become one of the most powerful and influential positions in the world.  A president has the power to set a legislative agenda, to veto a law, and to make crucial foreign policy decisions.  While all these capabilities are important, the most significant power of the presidency resides in his or her ability to respond to a national tragedy. Specifically, the president must provide comfort to a demoralized nation, commemorate the fallen Americans, and inspire hope.  No president fulfilled these tasks better than President Ronald Reagan during his “Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster Address” to the nation.  President Reagan comforted the nation, memorialized the seven casualties, and culminated hope for the future of space exploration all in a four-and-a-half-minute national address.  President Reagan’s address not only demonstrated the most important task of the President of the United States, but it also became a template from which future tragedy addresses would be given.

On January 28, 1986, the Space Shuttle Challenger “violently exploded” tragically after 73 seconds of flight (Reagan). Ronald Reagan then came out to remind everyone of the importance of mistakes like this and not to let them destroy people's confidence. He stated, “It’s all part of the process of exploration and discovery. It’s all part of taking a chance and expanding man's horizons. The future doesn’t belong to the fainthearted; it belongs to the brave.

Memos within a company serve several purposes. They may be used to report meeting agendas, policies, internal reports, or short proposals. Memos may also be used as a tool to inform staff, management, or executives of important information. Two very good examples of this are the memos written regarding the 1978 Three Mile Island Disaster, and the 1985 Challenger Explosion. Both of these disasters were forewarned by employees and addressed by memos to superiors. Bert M. Dunn of Babcock and Wilcox Company wrote a memo to his management to inform them of a potential operator error occurring at the nuclear power plants that needed to be addressed. R. M. Boisjoly of Morton

While seated in the Oval Office of the White house, January 28, 1986 President Ronald Reagan delivers his speech The Challenger Disaster; hours after the space shuttle The Challenger explodes while in take off. Thousands witnessed this horrifying event live in person and on television. This mission was very unique allowing the first civilian to ever be allowed in space during a mission. She was aboard The Challenger as an observer in the NASA Teacher in Space Program. Ironically, nineteen years before this disaster, three astronauts were tragically lost in an accident on the ground. President Reagan remembers those astronauts that were lost not only the day of the disaster, but also those who were lost nineteen years before. He conducts

On January 28, 1986, as millions of Americans watched on live television and in person, the Challenger space shuttle exploded and broke up over the Atlantic Ocean just moments after its launch. This space mission was significant for several reason, among them was that it would be the first time where the space shuttle would carry a civilian into outer space. Also, there was a frenzy of interest for Americans as the U.S. and Russians were locked in a space race for space exploration supremacy. Instead. President Ronald Reagan was left with the unenviable duty of consoling a nation that had just witnessed the most significant disaster in American history.

It holds true that government organizations gradually decline; the enthusiasm is replaced with bureaucracy, employees are resistant to change and overall performance is decreased. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is no exception to this. NASA is an example of bureaucracy having a detrimental effect on an organization. The lines of communication became skewed and were often broken while the organization was locked in an internal battle over who exactly was in charge. While there were heads of each department and heads of each branch, critical information often slipped through the cracks. It was this breakdown in communication and the failure to address known issues that was the direct cause for both the Challenger and Columbia explosions. The explosions, though separated by seventeen years, were incredibly similar. Concerns had been brought to the table and similarly dismissed as “acceptable risk.” This acceptable risk proved fatal for the crews of both space shuttles. Bureaucracy and financial expediency led to reduced federal funding, general distrust from the public, and growing disinterest. The organization that sent men to the moon is vastly different than the organization in charge today. NASA’s beginnings were less clouded in red tape and bureaucratic policies. Ideas were

Challenger Disaster and Impacts Space exploration is and always will be an expensive and dangerous ordeal. Before the Challenger accident, it was widely believed that space exploration was an easy and safe. However, as we see with the Challenger accident, that is not always the case. The primary fault for the failure to launch Challenger in orbit was deduced to be because of a defective O-ring. This defective component allowed hot gasses and flames to seep out, that subsequently created a blowtorch that was aimed at the spacecraft.

odds of disaster were realized. Every shuttle has a 1/24 chance of disaster. NASA 's

Next on the list is Cleveland East Ohio Gas Explosion of 1944. “On October 20, 1944, a storage tank holding liquefied natural gas, that was kept above ground as was common at the time, began leaking. The liquefied gas dropped into the sewer lines, mixed with air and sewer gas, and consequently ignited. A series of fires and explosions killed 130 people in Cleveland, Ohio. The catastrophe event made a significant impact on the natural gas industry, that started to store the tanks below ground” (Engineering Disasters, 2017, p. 1). Again, it is obvious the lesson learned here but that doesn’t take away from how important it is. The lesson was to store such gas below ground and to make calculations for the unexpected.

The nation grieved for the brave crew who lost their lives in the disaster. My Aunt Kim remembers where she was when she found out. “I was just out of high school and working at a bakery. I was in the back with some of the other girls who worked there when we heard the challenger had exploded. We knew that the teacher had died and everything like that. And… it was very sobering.” The Challenger explosion was a traumatic experience for America. NASA realized they hadn’t been careful enough. The explosion could have been avoided. The United States government and NASA from that point on realized that they couldn’t rush their projects at the expense of people's lives. It left a permanent impression on those who watched and reminds us that The United States is not perfect or infallible, that seven people died unnecessarily because of NASA’s decision to launch when conditions weren’t

The case study I chose to analyze was the Space Shuttle Challenger Explosion by Ronald C. Kramer. Kramer discussed four main components that led to the catastrophic explosion. These components include the societal context, the final flaw, the persons behind the final decision to launch, and lastly the failure of social control mechanisms. There was not just one factor that led to the failure of the launch. As Kramer discusses the different concepts that led to the failure point to state-corporate crime as a private business and government agency interacted.

On January 28, 1986, a day that was supposed to be filled with excitement and exploration, suddenly turned into a day filled with tragedy and sadness. The space shuttle Challenger was supposed to carry a seven member crew into orbit with one unique member along for this particular mission. Christa McAuliffe was supposed to be the first teacher to go into space as a member of the Teacher in Space Project. Due to this occasion, the media coverage and the number of viewers of this mission was extensive, particularly in schools across the nation. The Challenger lifted off shortly after 11:30 A.M., but tragically only seventy three seconds after takeoff it exploded sending debris and the seven crew members back to earth and into the Atlantic

On the morning of Janurary 28th 1986, the world witnessed in shock and horror what was known as the Challenger disaster as the space shuttle exploded only 73 seconds after its launch, killing all seven crew members onboard including one teacher Christa McAuliffe. Approximately 17 percent of Americans watched the live broadcast of this launch, many of them schoolchildren including those from McAuliffe’s school. From this grave moment emerged an exigency that demands immediate action by the president. Later on that same day, President Ronald Reagan delivered his Challenger address to the nation.

One of the greatest tragedies in history occurred on January 8, 1986. Shortly after it was launched, the space shuttle Challenger exploded, killing seven astronauts, including Christa McAuliffe, a New Hampshire schoolteacher chosen to be the first teacher in space (“Challenger Disaster, n.d.). The explosion was caused by a failure of the O-rings of the solid rocket boosters. The O-rings were unable to seat properly, causing the leaking of hot combustion gases, which burnt through the external fuel tank. The malfunction was not any one person’s or organization’s fault; it was caused by many factors including the decision to launch despite the cold weather, the poor communication between management levels of the National Aeronautics and

Seventy three seconds into its 10th flight, on January 28, 1986, the Space Shuttle Challenger broke apart over the Atlantic Ocean, killing the seven crew members on board [1]. The Challenger was the second space shuttle constructed by NASA and had completed nine successful missions prior to the disaster. Following the accident, the shuttle program was suspended for 32 months as President Ronald Regan appointed a Commission, chaired by William P. Rogers and known as the Rogers Commission, to investigate the cause of the accident [1].