2 ms·

Or not thinking that an O-ring might experience temperatures below freezing in Florida https://priceonomics.com/the-space-shuttle-challenger-explosion-and-the-o

• lupusreal 3y ago
  The really shitty thing is they knew early on the O-rings were slipping and partially extruding themselves, which wasn't part of the original design. They shrugged and ignored this, which then opened the door for disaster when the O-rings behaved differently (and still wrong) when cold. If they had pumped the brakes when the initial deviation from the design was discovered, it wouldn't have ended in disaster.
  • b112 3y ago
    My memory saya that some engineers objected, but they were ignored.
    • rjmunro 3y ago
      Engineers objected and were ignored for the foam strike as well. What I don't know is how many engineers object, are ignored, and everything goes fine anyway. Maybe these are the only 2 times engineers objected. Maybe they get 100 objections for every launch.
    • ortusdux 3y ago
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Boisjoly#O-ring_safety_concerns https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Boisjoly#O-ring_safety_c... "Boisjoly wrote a memo in July 1985 to his superiors concerning the faulty design of the solid rocket boosters that, if left unaddressed, could lead to a catastrophic event during launch of a Space Shuttle. Such a catastrophic event occurred six months later resulting in the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster."
• jasonwatkinspdx 3y ago
  That one is a classic example of normalization of deviance. They knew there were temperature limits, but they'd pushed the boundary a bit in the past with no ill results, and so began to feel complacent about the risks of pushing them even further.