Flip through the latest issue of Gulf Weekly.
January 28 marked the 29th anniversary of the Challenger disaster, where seven astronauts lost their lives and changed the way we looked at humanity.
The shuttle exploded in mid-air, merely minutes after launch. It was an unfortunate occurrence which could have easily been avoided … yet it wasn’t. Why?
Several investigations following the incident showed that the O-Ring seals failed, causing gases in the external fuel tank to mix leading to an explosion. The O-rings were not capable of dealing with the cold weather conditions during launch: all the engineers on the team knew this. How could this oversight occur?
The Challenger incident is a textbook case of ‘Groupthink’, where there is a lot of pressure on a team to make the right decision, and maintain harmony in order to work cohesively as a group.
Picture this: you are a NASA engineer. The launch of an important mission has already been delayed by six days due to technicalities and bad weather. You are under a lot of pressure from senior management to give the green light for launch, but, you have a suspicion that launching the shuttle in cold weather is a bad idea. All of your colleagues have agreed for launch. You want to be seen as a team player. What do you do?
