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The Challenger Launch Decision: Risky Technology, Culture, and Deviance at NASA 1st Edition

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Diane Vaughan (Author)
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Diane Vaughan (Author)
4.5 out of 5 stars 38 customer reviews
ISBN-13: 978-0226851761
ISBN-10: 0226851761
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Product Details

  • Paperback: 592 pages
  • Publisher: University of Chicago Press; 1 edition (April 15, 1997)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0226851761
  • ISBN-13: 978-0226851761
  • Product Dimensions: 6 x 1.8 x 9 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds
  • Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (38 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #440,238 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Top Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 starsFascinating account, tortured writing
By GST on February 29, 2004
Format: Paperback
Penetrating account of the organizational causes of the Challenger disaster. The author shows that the engineering mistake that led to the disaster was not the result of intentional wrongdoing ("amoral calculator" thesis = managers overruling engineers due to economic and/or political pressures) but that quite on the contrary that the NASA and contractor teams played by the rulebook to a fault and that the mistake was "systematic and socially organized". A must read for everybody interested in organizational dynamics or in how to manage risk in the development of technological innovations.
Given the fascinating subject matter and revisionist thesis it's a pity that the writing is very uneven. Most of the "thick description" of the decisions around the booster joint from the early design days to the post-mortem by the Presidential Commission is quite readable. This core of the text, however, is embedded in an unbearably repetitive and plodding overall narrative flow (the account could probably be reduced in length by 50%) which in places degenerates into (sociological?) opaque language. Taking a cue from the author's concept of "structural secrecy" (things are hidden not on purpose but due to organizational compartmentalization), the argument of the book loses a lot of its force due to the undisciplined way of telling it; the author could profit from a strong editor.
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5.0 out of 5 starsReliability/Maintenance/Refinery Engineering Application
By Kenneth P. Bloch on August 5, 2002
Format: Hardcover Verified Purchase
I started reading this book to improve my Root Cause Failure Analysis skills after hearing that it covers, in fine detail, a failure that cost the lives of 7 astronauts and destroyed a multi-billion dollar asset. We are first presented with the popular media viewpoint that describes how performance-driven NASA administrators aggressively pursued production, political, and economic goals at the expense of personal safety. How a mechanical flaw formally designated as a potentially catastrophic anomaly by NASA and Thiokol engineers became a normal flight risk on the basis of previous good launches. How a last minute plea from subject matter experts to halt the countdown on an uncommonly cold day in January 1986 was ignored by engineering managers on the decision chain so the launch schedule would not be compromised.
I remember an early feeling of relief in knowing that while similar performance, production, and scheduling pressures exist in my career, the attitudes that were mostly at fault for the Challenger incident are absent from my refinery and violate all 10 of my parent company's business principles starting with #1 (conduct all business lawfully and with integrity).
The author then proceeds to shatter every element of this popular emotional impression by presenting a credible account of the failure based on public record. This is an important point because unlike with Enron's collapse, there is no shredding of pertinent documents behind the Challenger incident. And it is this matter of public record that can benefit anyone having reliability or production engineering responsibilities within a refinery. Here we find evidence that NASA's best friend - a reliable system built to assure the utmost safety in engineering - was to blame for the tragedy.Read more ›
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5.0 out of 5 starsWho would have thought....
By oldcontractor on May 15, 2001
Format: Hardcover
Who would have thought that the most cognizant explanation of the Challenger accident would be written from an industrial psychology perspective? I've worked for NASA contractors for 24 years and have dealt with all of the types of various reviews and "overhead chart" engineering and management discussions and telecons she studied. I read this book when it first came out and have referred others to it as one of the best texts on management, technical decision making, and quality assurance that I can think of. Years of education led me to think that I was a "professional" but, as Ms Vaughn so eloquently demonstrates, there is no real aerospace engineering profession in the context of the NASA/Industry partnership.
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5.0 out of 5 starsNormalization Of Deviance
By Robert I. Hedges HALL OF FAMETOP 500 REVIEWER on December 23, 2004
Format: Paperback Verified Purchase
As a sociological explanation of disastrous decision making in high risk applications, this book is without peer, exceeding even Charles Perrow's work by a fair measure. Vaughan, a sociologist, obviously worked very hard at understanding the field joint technology that caused the "Challenger" accident, and even harder at understanding the extremely complex management and decision making processes at NASA and Morton Thiokol.

The book ultimately discards the "amoral calculation" school of thought (which she was preconditioned to believe at the outset of her research by media coverage of the event) and explains how an ever expanding definition of acceptable performance (despite prior joint issues) led to the "normalization of deviance" which allowed the faulty decision to launch to be made. The sociological and cultural analyses are especially enlightening and far surpass the technical material about the actual physical cause of the accident presented.

This is a masterful book, and is impeccably documented. The reference portion of the book in the back is especially useful, in that she reproduces several key original documents pertinent to the investigation which are difficult to obtain elsewhere. My only objection to the book is the extreme use of repetition, which I think needlessly lengthened the book in several areas, and obfuscating sociological terminology like "paradigm obduracy" which not only fails to illuminate the non-sociologists among us, but makes for somewhat tortured prose.

In praise of the book, however, it is a brilliant analysis of how decisions are made in safety-critical programs in large institutions. Chapter ten, "Lessons Learned," is particularly noteworthy in its analysis and recommendations.Read more ›
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 starsGreat Book

A really nice review of how normalization of deviation can infect an organization and have bad outcomes. Read more

Published 9 months ago by richard s hill
5.0 out of 5 starsThinking Outside the Box on Causes of Failure

On January 28, 1986, the Challenger Space Shuttle was launched. Seventy-three seconds into its flight it broke apart, killing all seven astronauts aboard. Read more

Published 12 months ago by John R. Holmes, Jr.
5.0 out of 5 starsi watched the shuttle explode

I am proud to have this book. I lived to watch all the launches. I was fascinated with the technology of the shuttles. It was a miracle to me how space travel had come so far. Read more

Published 17 months ago by Rebecca Kubiak
5.0 out of 5 starsGreat book for safety professionals

This book provides an in depth look at the Challenger disaster. I also addressed the normalization of deviance. Read more

Published 20 months ago by Medic076
5.0 out of 5 starsFive Stars

Normalization of deviance!

Published 21 months ago by Mark D. Flitcraft
5.0 out of 5 starsThought Provoking

I have purchased this book several times in different formats. This book goes into the culture behind NASAs Challenger Launch. Read more

Published on March 29, 2014 by Mike Cataldo
5.0 out of 5 starsGreat read on Group/Organizational Dynamics

Excellent well written case study of the Challenger explosion and how lessons learned from how NASA functioned can be applied to other group dynamics and business decisions in any... Read more

Published on December 15, 2013 by Michael Manning MD MBA
5.0 out of 5 starsExcellent research -- interesting point of view

I learned more about the Challenger launch decision that I had ever known. Well researched, well written, and (if you are interested in decision-making processes) a must-read.

Published on October 9, 2013 by William Bliss
3.0 out of 5 stars"Beat A Dead Horse"-Spoiler:NASA Mgmt Overruled Engineers, Too Cold,...

I fear the small number of reviews have bolstered the supreme rating this book has gotten. Don't get me wrong, its a very thorough and detailed book, worthy of high praise. Read more

Published on July 9, 2013 by ralphie wiggum
5.0 out of 5 starsA Doubly Important Work

This book, while not light reading, is an important work. It is one of the best investigations into the Challenger disaster out there and will be appreciated by those interested... Read more

Published on May 7, 2013 by NMOCM

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