Q
qso1
Guest
Ultimately thats true. But management failure in cases like Challenger and Columbia are much easier to refer to as management failure. Hardware failures I regard as that involving the failure of a perfectly good piece of hardware.<br /><br />In Challengers case, the hardware was good (Rubber O rings) until they sat in almost sub zero weather in Florida and cold soaked, then failed at launch. This is traceable by a management decision to launch despite seeing evidence of problems with "O" rings in cold weather in previous launches in temps below about 45 degrees F.<br /><br />Same with Columbia, an accident caused ultimately by management and engineering decisions to fly hardware that posed a threat to the vehicle, foam coming off the ET in this case.<br /><br />A scenario that could be the closest thing to hardware failure is one in which a catastrophe occurs when a piece of critical hardware fails for no apparent reason, but as you point out, it all can be traced back to some human decision. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><strong>My borrowed quote for the time being:</strong></p><p><em>There are three kinds of people in life. Those who make it happen, those who watch it happen...and those who do not know what happened.</em></p> </div>