September 27, 1996: Volume 38, Number 2

Former NASA Engineer To Speak

Roger Boisjoly, the scientist who defended the original "no launch" decision on the ill-fated Challenger space shuttle mission and who later offered vital testimony about the decision to launch, will speak on "Using Challenger as a Model to Change Organizational Behavior" on Wednesday, Oct. 9, at 7:30 p.m. in the Nott Memorial.

The lecture, part of the College's Minerva Series, is free and open to the public. Boisjoly's talk was postponed from last spring.

Boisjoly, now an ethics lecturer and forensic engineer who offers testimony in investigations of mechanical malfunctions, was a troubleshooter for NASA's solid rocket booster program at the time of the Jan. 28, 1986 Challenger accident.

In pre-launch meetings, Boisjoly argued that the low-temperatures preceding the launch could compromise the O-rings that join the segments of the solid rocket boosters. But his concerns were met with one NASA manager saying, "We need to make a management decision."

"I became furious when I heard this because I knew that an attempt would be made by management to reverse our recommendation not to launch," Boisjoly said.

Eventually, NASA managers -- over the objections of Boisjoly and others -- decided to proceed. About a minute into launch, an O-ring near the base of the right booster had failed to the point that escaping hot gasses perforated the main engine, causing an explosion and the loss of the Challenger and its crew.

Boisjoly uses the case study of the Challenger to discuss management problems that plague a number of organizations, specifically that managers often do not have enough or correct information to make decisions and that problems are hidden. The Presidential Commission on the Challenger Accident reported that it was "troubled by what appears to be a propensity ... to contain potentially serious problems ... rather than communicate them forward. This tendency is at odds with the need ... to function as part of a system working toward successful flight missions, interfacing and communicating with the other parts of the system that work to the same end."

Boisjoly was employed for 27 years in the aerospace industry in the primary disciplines of mechanical design and structural analysis. He earned his engineering degree from the University of Massachusetts at Lowell.

His honors and awards include a Certificate of Appreciation from NASA for support in the Challenger post-disaster investigation, the Presidential Award from the National Space Society for Professional Integrity and Personal Courage, and the Scientific Freedom and Responsibility Award from the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

<< Previous Story Review Committees Formed

Next Story >> Chronicle Is On The Web