On January 28, 1986, the Challenger space shuttle exploded about a minute after takeoff. This was because the O-rings on the solid rocket booster were damaged and caused fuel to leak which lead to an explosion. Many things made this happen anything from a bad design to bad communication. What makes this an ethical dilemma is how many engineers told management that there were problems with the spacecraft, but they ignored them because they didn’t believe the data they had was big enough to stop the launch. The management also had a lot of pressure on them from the public and government. The night before the launch a teleconference was held between engineers and management from Kennedy Space Center, Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama, and …show more content…
But after pressure from other managers, he said the erosion was concerned, but they should go on with the launch anyway. Jerald Mason is a senior executive at Morton-Thiokol and he really wanted the shuttle to takeoff. He even said to Bob Lund, “Take off your engineering hat and put on your management hat.” There were some outside pressure to get Challenger off the ground which explains why some argued against the engineers’ findings. During Ronald Regan’s State of the Union address, he said he wanted to put the first teacher into space. The launch was delayed three different times. The first time was due to cold weather and rain. The next time was due to a defective microswitch for the latch locking mechanism. And the last one was due to weather since they had to wait around to have the microswitch fixed. The Vice President was coming to the launch and having to tell him a few times that the launch has been delayed was concerning for NASA since he was a strong supporter of NASA. There are many ethical codes that the people involved in this miserable event. In the ASME code of ethics of engineers, the first and second fundamental principles were followed by the engineers and managers opposing the launch, but were codes that were ignored by those who wanted the shuttle to launch. Those two principles are engineers uphold and advance the reliability, honor, and dignity of the engineering profession by: I. Using their knowledge and skill for the improvement of human safety. II. Being honest with employers and clients. The same goes for the Fundamental regulation in the ASME code of ethics of engineers. The engineers followed them while the non-engineering managers didn’t. There were two regulations that were ignored. These were: 1. Engineers will hold the safety, health and welfare of the public in the performance of their