The date was January 28, 1986. People around the United States watched as the space shuttle Challenger was launched into the sky. Within moments, excitement turned to horror as the Challenger exploded. All 7 crew members were lost that day. The New York Times claims this event as “one of the worst accidents of the American space program.” It was a tragedy for the entire nation. But what really happened that day?
The simple answer to “what went wrong” is that the weather was cold that morning causing the O ring seals on the rocket booster to fail. This released hot gas that ignited a fuel tank. It’s easy to say that this could have been prevented. The O rings had been a problem in the past and the team had been warned that day to postpone the launch until the weather was a bit warmer. It’s easy to point fingers and say the incident could have been prevented, but it’s hard to say who is really to blame.
There are engineers who had warned NASA about the dangers before the incident even occurred. Roger Boisjoly, an engineer of the space shuttle working for Morton Thiokol, a NASA contractor, warned them not to go through with the launch the night before, and they did anyway with disastrous consequences. I think Roger Boisjoly was right in his whistleblowing. He and his colleagues knew of the dangers and did everything in their power to stop the launch. NASA tried to keep it quiet by telling all their employees not to talk to reporters. But Boisjoly and other engineers shared what they knew with the Rogers Commission and brought the truth about the O rings to light. People deserved to know the truth about the incident, if only to prevent similar tragedies in the future. Personally I think Boisjoly did the right thing.
Was his company justified in their retaliation? It’s hard to say. I can understand why they were angry and I do believe in some level of company loyalty. However, I do not think they were right in destroying Boisjoly’s career. He did the right thing. He warned against the potential dangers and later pointed out those who were at fault for the incident. I think it’s really sad that Boisjoly once said that the incident “destroyed my career, my life, everything else.” He did the right thing and if people had listened to him in the first place, other people’s lives could have been spared too.
Kim's Ethics Blog 