Boston College Sociology Professor Diane Vaughan, author of the book The Challenger Launch Decision: Risky Technology, Culture, and Deviance at NASA (University of Chicago Press, 1996), sees many similarities between the Challenger and Columbia space shuttle disasters. "At the time of the Challenger disaster in 1986, NASA was plagued by an inadequate budget and work cut backs. And while astronauts and technicians are always mindful of the risky technology of space flight, top administrators have a tendency to discount the risk and think of space flight as routine. I see many parallels between theses circumstances in 1986 and today."
For her book Challenger Launch Decision, Vaughan methodically pieced together nine years of research to show that NASA's standard operating procedure regarding risky-decision making--in which technical anomalies were repeatedly considered acceptable ("acceptable risk")--created a structure where conformity to the rules led to the fatal error.
An expert in organizational misconduct, Vaughan said that the cause of the Challenger disaster was not due to intentional managerial wrongdoing, safety rule violations or conspiracy. Rather, she said, NASA's organizational structure was such that the decision to launch Challenger was an inevitable mistake. NASA's organizational culture, routines and systems were designed to allow for a process of normalizing signals of potential danger. Thus known technical problems became-- within the institution--an operating norm and did not prevent NASA managers from giving the go-ahead to shuttle launches prior to and including Challenger.
Vaughan notes that a glaring difference between the Challenger and Columbia disasters has been the response from NASA. "In 1986, NASA did not have a mechanism for dealing with the public in the face of a disaster. They conducted an internal review, but did not reveal information and therefore raised suspicions. This weekend, NASA showed a much more forthcoming and revealing public face. It builds sympathy rather than suspicion."
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