Lesson Plan: Lessons From the Challenger Tragedy
Grades 7-12
On January 28, 1986, just 73 seconds after takeoff, the space shuttle Challenger exploded in the Florida sky, killing all seven crew members. The explosion stunned millions of viewers who had tuned in to see history being made. Christa McAuliffe, a high school science teacher from Concord, NH, was among the crew, and was scheduled to teach a class from the shuttle to students nationwide.
Initially, the explosion was attributed to the failure of O-rings on a rocket fuel booster. But a presidential commission investigating the disaster revealed that the O-rings were only part of the story. The commission also concluded that flaws in the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s organizational structure and decision-making processes had played key roles in the catastrophe. In response to the commission’s findings, NASA redesigned the materials and use of the O-rings on the space shuttle and initiated changes in quality control, and management culture.
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