Risk Tolerance

The amount of risk NASA tolerated with the Challenger launch is absurd. NASA acted as though it were a busing system going to and from space. This high tolerance towards risk may have been caused by NASA falling into an overconfidence psychological trap. An overconfidence psychological trap is the process of estimating an overly narrow range of possible values, caused by initial impressions or past events (Hammond, Keeney & Raiffa, 1999). Prior to the Challenger, NASA had been extremely successful in its launches and achievements. NASA safely had launched shuttles 24 times before, and a sense of routine had crept in. This led to overconfidence and an unhealthy level of risk tolerance (Osgood, 2011). NASA was so confident in the safety of the mission that they allowed a school teacher to join the crew. The biggest risk of all is loss of life. It seems completely inappropriate that NASA allowed non astronauts on this mission.
According to the NASA website, three conditions that can cause mission and safety failures are finite resources, task and organizational uncertainty, and changing, dynamic environments. Specific features common to all high-risk environments also include mission and systems complexity and distributed teams (engaged in both design and operations). Both features require huge amounts of coordination and information sharing, which are potential sources of risk (Mission, 2008). All three conditions occurred during the Challenger launch. The O-rings on the shuttle were not in correct condition, temperatures were too cold, and NASA employees were not organized properly to handle these issues.
There was a lack of coordination and the organization’s communication suffered because of it. For example, according to the Rogers Commission Report, “NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center at Huntsville, Ala., was blamed for not passing along