On April 12, 1981, Columbia began the space shuttle program as it was the first shuttle to reach space. During the next couple of decades, many astronauts went into space to learn more about our universe. Unfortunately, with many things in life such as science, all trials have their fair share of successes and failures.
As with all failures, the primary goal is to learn from past mistakes. Columbia was successful for nearly two decades. However, in 2003, there was a tragic accident during Columbia’s final mission. According to NASA.gov, “as the Space Shuttle lifted off from Kennedy Space Center in Florida on January 16, a small portion of foam broke away from the orange external fuel tank and struck the orbiter’s left wing. The resulting damage created a hole in the wing’s leading edge, which caused the vehicle
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Because this had proven not to be a catastrophic issue, many were not all that concerned about the safety of the shuttle and crew. As the shuttle approached the time to land at the Kennedy Space Center, “abnormal reading showed up at Mission Control. They lost temperature readings from sensors located on the left wing. Then, tire pressure readings from the left also vanished” (Space.com). The belief that the shuttle may have had a large amount of fuel may be true. The conclusion about the disaster was that “it was later found that a hole on the left wing allowed atmospheric gases to bleed into the shuttle as it went through its fiery re-entry, leading to the loss of the sensors and eventually, Columbia itself”
"One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind," said by Neil Armstrong as he took his first steps on the moon during the NASA Apollo 11 expedition to the moon. No man has ever been to the moon before and NASA, The National Aeronautics and Space Administration, was the first to get someone to land on the moon. NASA has had many great accomplishments in exploring the "new frontier" that have affected the United States ever since it was first created in July 1958. The idea for NASA first started when the Soviet Union launched the first satellite on October 4, 1957. United States started up its own space travel program and started to work on its own projects that would be better in than the Soviet Union's. This all started the great space race. It was a big race between the Soviet Union and the United States to see who could learn and discover the most. The United States and Soviet Union started building and sending satellites and space ships. Then they tried to see who could make a suit and ship that would be able to allow a living thing to go up in space. They tested out all of the equipment with monkeys and dogs, seeing what would work. Many animals did die in the process but by the results of their testing they were able to build suits and ships that allow human beings to go up in space. Even though they were able to create these machines, that doesn't mean that they didn't have their difficulties and dangers. Two space shuttles were crashed or blown up. There were many key factors that they had learned to fix that resulted in the crashing of those ships. They have made many discoveries and accomplishments like having the first astronauts walk on the moon.
They’re where a lot of purposed recommendations from the commission to help ensure that any future shuttle missions would not experience the same catastrophic O-ring failure like the challenger shuttle. The first recommendation was to redesign the O-ring by improving “structural capability, seal redundancy, and thermal protection” (NASA, n/d). This change would also redesign the tang and clevis of the mating points of the rocket. The redesign not only used a third O-ring seal but also a newly redesigned “O-ring seals are designed to not leak under structural deflection of twice the expected values” (NASA, n/d)
Space travel began in the 1960s with sending humans on single missions into space. Rockets launched into the air and just the tip would land in the ocean after parachuting back to Earth ("Space Shuttle Program," par. 4). The focus of space exploration changed during the 1980s; shifting from the desire for human space flight to the desire to create a reusable spacecraft. Originally called Space Transportation System (STS), NASA created the Space Shuttle Program (SSP) (Heiney, par. 1-2). It wanted a shuttle that was more economical because it could be launched, landed and relaunched and could gather better information. The 1980s began a new era in space exploration and had one the biggest tragedies in the history of space travel.
While some human errors can lead to accidental success, history has proven that human error comes down to lack of communication, not being observant, or not being cautious. Because when creating new technology such as NASA's Space Shuttle or the "unsinkable," the inventors fool themselves to believe that nothing can go wrong, when in most cases it's the complete opposite. Not listening to superiors and taking major warning signs into account, made them vulnerable to technological infallibility. Space Shuttle Challenger and the Titanic could have easily been avoided if people took warnings into account.
Moving on to the 60’s and forward the space program expanded greatly. According to Areospace.com, “The first U.S. satellite, Explorer 1, went into orbit on January 31, 1958” (Areospace.com). Advancements continued onward. As stated by Areospace.com, “In 1961 Alan Shepard became the first American to fly into space. On February 20, 1962, John Glenn’s historic flight made him the first American to orbit Earth” (Areospace.com). The spacecraft technology continued to evolve to today’s astronauts who can more easily transverse the atmosphere’s barrier and make it to space now. Moreover, medical develops like the pacemaker, invented in 1959, has been perfected or discovered along with other medical inventions like: the polio vaccine, the open heart surgery, the discovery of DNA, the first organ transplant, the contraceptive pill, and so
NASA has faced many tragedies during their time; but one can question if two of the tragedies were preventable by changing some critical decisions made by the organization. The investigation board looking at the decisions made for the space shuttle tragedies of the Columbia and Challenger noted that the “loss resulted as much from organizational as from technical failures” (Bolman & Deal, 2008, p. 191). The two space shuttle tragedies were about twenty years apart, they both had technical failures but politics also played a factor in to these two tragedies.
It took NASA a couple years to resume its flight to orbit. The catastrophe of the space shuttle challenger shook them up and have rethink their procedures and methods of operation. NASA, improve or I should say worked on developing its shuttle management structure, its shuttle safety panel, critical review and hazard policy, communication, safety organization and many more.
On the morning of Tuesday, January 28th, 1986, it was a normal day for the citizens and children of America. Although this may have been a normal day most of the nation’s televisions were set to watch the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) set a new milestone with its space shuttle the Challenger. During this time space exploration was very important in the American culture. The Challenger shuttle had a crew of seven men and women, including a teacher Christa McAuliffe from the space program. On this Tuesday morning most of America watched and listen as the twenty fifth shuttle mission took off with what was thought to be no complications. A short time of seventy three seconds after the shuttle was launched, a fire broke out and the space shuttle exploded. Landing in the ocean, all that remained was two smoking rocket boosters of what use to be the Challenger.
...lenger inquiry” [online], World Socialist Web Site, May 6, 2003 [cited March 16, 2010], available from World Wide Web:
On January 28, 1968 the space shuttle Challenger was deployed from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. One minute and thirteen seconds after liftoff the spaceship ignited in mid air and all seven crew members were killed. The cause of the destruction of the challenger was a certain part of rubber that relieves pressure on the side of the actual rocket booster called an O-ring. When a space shuttle as used as the Challenger is about to be used for another mission there should be an even more careful with checking everything before liftoff. The Challenger could have been avoided and there was way too much evidence that shows NASA had some kind of knowledge about the consequences.
The Columbia Disaster was one of the most tragic events in space shuttle history. In 2003, space shuttle Columbia broke up as it returned to Earth, killing the seven astronauts. This essay will explain the major causes of the Columbia disaster which include technical issue and management issues, and illustrate how pressure impacts engineers work at NASA.
Even in the late 19th century, few people believed such a feat was possible, and yet, a mere half a century later, the first man was launched into space (Irvine 5). How did the human race go from just dreaming about space to actually launching human beings into space in such a short time? Surprisingly, the United States’ space program started with the Cold War. The Cold War pushed the United States and the Soviet Union into a space race in which both nations rapidly developed space programs and tried to best each other in space exploration (Cold War 1). The Kennedy Space Center was built in Florida as a control center which handled many of the shuttle launches into space (NASA 1).
For this assignment we will discuss some theories on organizational change learned during this class and how they relate to the case study of NASA (The Challenger and Columbia Shuttle Disaster). First we will look the images of managing change used by NASA in the case study. Then we will discuss the types of change(s) NASA under took. Next we will look at some of the challenges of change that NASA faced. Next we will discuss some of the resistance to change that NASA dealt with. Then we look at how NASA implemented change. Next we will discuss vision and change and the impact in the case study. Finally we will discuss sustaining change as it relates to the changes implemented by NASA in the case study.
The space race was the product of the Cold War. It was an effort to prove technological superiority but on the other hand, it was also feared on both sides that weapons of mass destruction will be placed in orbit. In 1957, the Soviet Union sent the 184 pound Sputnik 1 satellite into Earth’s orbit. It was the first artificial satellite and the first manmade object to be placed into Earth’s orbit. Following that, they also sent the first animal into space, Laika the dog. In 1958, the United Sates also launched their first satellite into orbit, dubbed Explorer 1. The Soviet space program advanced once again in 1959. The Soviet Union launched Luna 2, which was the first space probe to hit the moon. In April 1961, the Soviet Union had the ultimate success, sending the first human into space. The name of the Russian cosmonaut was Yuri Gagarin, who made a 108 minute suborbital flight in a Vostok 1 spacecraft. One month after that, Alan Shepard became the American in space aboard the Freedom 7 spacecraft. Continuing from there, each nation step...
NASA started building the space shuttles for the Columbia mission upon its establishment of the Space Shuttle Program in January, 1972. Because of time constraint and a tight budget, while building the shuttle, it assumed that the shuttle would be safer as compared to any other spacecraft, and therefore, did not develop some important safety features such as an escape system for the crew. During the construction, the final step of the construction process was not done in the manufacturing facility but later, by the engineers. Because of schedule constraints, the shuttle was not tested according to normal procedures but analytics model was used to verify the system.