Columbia's Final Mission - Case

5 Questions for the Panel

1. What was the origin of the final problem?
2. What caused the Apollo 13 mission to turn out successfully?
3. What could be learned from Apollo 13 that could have been applied to the Columbia Mission?
4. Can the issues with the O-rings on Challenger be compared to the Foam Strike on Columbia? If so, how?
5. What must be done to assist in the prevention of future events such as the Columbia disaster?

5 Key Insights

1. I found it interesting that the DAT team had no clue who they were supposed to be reporting to. It was as if they purposely didn't inform them, maybe to assemble the team as requested but because they didn't care about what the DAT team would discover, they just partially isolated them from the Mission Management Team. Not very good for open communication.
2. It's interesting that proper resolution had been employed with the prior Apollo 13 mission, however, it was neglected or ignored for two disaster missions, the Challenger and the Columbia.
3. This was just a thought, but I can't determine an answer. How many issues have other country's space programs had? Have there been any exemplary Space programs in other Nations; Russia, Japan, etc.)? If so, what could be learn from them that might teach us something?
4. It seems to me that the pride of NASA has kept them from following the book in each and every flight. They have policies and procedures for safety, yet they often ignore them, or purposely minimize they severity of real problem to save money and time. Never a smart way to run an organization.
5. Who actually takes responsibility in NASA when things go wrong. Personally, I would broadly say NASA, the entire organization and their organizational structure (culture and hierarchy).

1 Key Organization of Personal Experience

I would have to discuss that of my experience with Sports Chek in Victoria, BC. I worked there after my mission, but prior to my attending school here at BYU-Idaho. While there experienced a lot with organizational communications, both effective and ineffective. My position there was that of merchandising. I was in charge of the general appearance of the store, restocking, display resets, and ad placements. I was suppose to report to the Operations Manager, beside him was the stores Sales manager and they reported to the Store manager. However, each day that I went to work I would receive direction from all three managers on what they thought I should be doing that day, with the direction from each being different from the other. Also, when I reported any problems to the Operations Manager, they often would not get relayed to the Store Manager and then back to the Sales Manager. Instead he would tell me to stop what I was originally doing and correct the problem. When the other managers would then see me attempting to correct the problem and would tell me to stop and get back to what I was originally doing. I hope this gives you the picture of the experience. Each day I worked had something similar to this type of event. Needless to say, I soon left the company to go work for those with better management.

Poor communication can really affect the way employees view their work. Also, it can lead to a sense of nothing really getting accomplished. I liked to work on a project to completion before moving to another, but in that work environment, I felt like I had started thousands of projects, but having never completed one of them.