Engineering Ethics and Leadership Homework Solution, Fall 2019

This assignment solution addresses two problems from an Engineering Ethics and Leadership course, focusing on the ethical considerations surrounding the Challenger and Columbia space shuttle disasters. Problem 1 analyzes the flawed decision-making process that led to the Challenger launch, highlighting communication gaps, inadequate safety management, and violations of ethical design principles. Problem 2 examines the Columbia disaster, discussing NASA's failure to anticipate the foam attack and the resulting communication disruptions. The solution references the provided assignment brief and textbook problems, providing a concise overview of the ethical failures and organizational shortcomings that contributed to these tragedies, and also provides the references used to write the assignment.

Running head: ENGINEERING, ETHICS & LEADERSHIP
ENGINEERING, ETHICS & LEADERSHIP
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1ENGINEERING, ETHICS & LEADERSHIP
Problem #1:
As it is understood and observed and as claimed by the academicians and the
physicists, the decision to launch challenger, a result of the NASA- Thiokol project, had
remained unsuccessful, because of a lot of reasons. Primarily, the decision making process
for the launching of the space shuttle was flawed itself. The climatic and the political
conditions and considerations were not in support of the launch of the space shuttle. Firstly,
there was a huge communication gap in the whole process, and the information, that was
provided to the engineering team, and the people of the NASA management team were
misleading and incomplete (Zinner, 2013). There was a huge lack in the whole management
system of NASA. Also, researchers have found that the safety management system of the
Challenger was poorly constructed as well. Therefore, it can be said that the decision making
process involved in the launch of the Challenger had violated two of the most basic and
essential ethical considerations. These are the value-sensitive design and the ethically aligned
designing of the planning of the launch.
Problem #2:
The mishap with the Columbia, a space shuttle of NASA, had shook the organization
gravely, resulting into the cancellation of the next, immediate launches. The mishap was
caused due to a foam attack. However, NASA could have approached the situations, but they
could not, because of two primary reasons, one, NASA did not consider the possibility of the
foam attack. Though the organization had the knowledge of certain attacks, yet they did not
consider this possibility. Secondly, due to a hole on the left-wing of the space shuttle, that
allowed the atmospheric gases to get inside of the shuttle, had caused a communication
disruption (Zinner, 2013). NASA could not communicate with the Columbia, for an extended
period, as all the sensory parts and the communication systems of the shuttle were disrupted.

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Hence the organization had no prior knowledge of the consequences that could have been
done (Zinner, 2013).

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References:
Boin, A., & Van Eeten, M. J. (2013). The resilient organization. Public Management
Review, 15(3), 429-445.
Zinner, E. S. (2013). The Challenger disaster: Group survivorship on a national landscape.
In When A Community Weeps (pp. 53-78). Routledge.

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