Being Asked to Soften the Urgency of the O-ring Problem
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My notebook entry on August 15, 1985, reads as follows: "An
attempt to form the team (referring to the Solid Rocket Motor
seal erosion team) was made on 19 July 1985. This attempt
virtually failed and resulted in my writing memo 2870:FY86:073.
This memo finally got some response and a team was formed
officially. The first meeting was held on August 15, 1985 at
2:30 pm." The memo referred to is the one I read to the
Presidential Commission on February 25, 1986, which was written
to the vice president of engineering at Morton Thiokol on July
31, 1985. The memo ended by saying, "It is my honest and very
real fear that if we do not take immediate action to dedicate a
team to solve the problem, with the field joint having the
number one priority, then we stand in jeopardy of losing a
flight along with all the launch pad facilities."
During this July period, NASA headquarters in Washington
D.C. asked Morton Thiokol to prepare a presentation on the
problems with all the booster seals. The presentation was
prepared by MSFC on August 19, 1985, with Morton Thiokol
personnel in attendance.
Morton Thiokol was then asked by MSFC in September to send a
representative to the SAE conference in October to discuss the
seals and solicit help from the experts. I prepared and
presented a six-page overview of the joints and the seal
configuration to approximately 130 technical experts on October
7, 1985. However, I was given strict instructions, which came
from NASA, not to express the critical urgency of fixing the
joint but only to emphasize the joint improvement aspect during
my presentation.
Discussion Questions
NASA once again wanted the seal task force team to soften
the urgency of the O-ring problem. If the word leaked that
there existed a major malfunction in the solid rocket booster,
Congress would likely lose even more faith in the Shuttle
program. No cold weather launches were scheduled for the near
future. Should Boisjoly continue to listen to NASA and play
down the importance of the problem? Which of the following are
good things to do in this situation?