Weeks after Challenger disintegrated 73 seconds after launch, killing all seven crew members, the presidential commission chaired by William Rogers began its investigation. Physicist Richard Feynman's later demonstration of the O-ring's failure in cold rubber, dipped in a glass of ice water at a hearing, became one of the most famous moments in science communication.
The Challenger disaster on January 28, 1986 had stunned a nation watching live, as the shuttle broke apart just over a minute after liftoff, killing all seven astronauts including schoolteacher Christa McAuliffe. President Reagan appointed a commission led by former Secretary of State William Rogers to determine what went wrong, and the panel began its work in earnest as public hearings opened.
Among the commission's members was physicist Richard Feynman, whose blunt, hands-on approach to investigation cut through NASA's bureaucratic caution. He would later famously demonstrate, using a clamp, a piece of rubber O-ring material, and a glass of ice water, exactly how the seals lost their resilience in cold temperatures, the flaw that had allowed hot gas to escape the solid rocket booster and doom the shuttle.
The commission's eventual report excoriated NASA's management culture, revealing that engineers had warned of the O-ring risks the night before launch but were overruled amid pressure to maintain the flight schedule. The investigation reshaped how NASA approached safety and risk communication, though its lessons about groupthink and dismissed warnings would tragically need relearning after the Columbia disaster seventeen years later.
Key people: William Rogers, Richard Feynman