1986 Space Shuttle Challenger Report

The website link is to the report itself at NASA. The file link is to the Feynman appendix.

The Rogers Commission Report was written by a Presidential Commission charged with investigating the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster during its 10th mission, STS-51-L. The report, released and submitted to President Ronald Reagan on June 9, 1986, both determined the cause of the disaster that took place 73 seconds after liftoff, and urged NASA to improve and install new safety features on the shuttles and in its organizational handling of future missions.

Commission members

William P. Rogers, chairman and former United States Secretary of State (under Richard Nixon) and United States Attorney General (under Dwight Eisenhower)

Neil Armstrong (vice-chairman), retired astronaut and first human to walk on the Moon (Apollo 11)

David Campion Acheson, diplomat and son of former Secretary of State Dean Acheson

Eugene E. Covert, aeronautics expert and former Chief Scientist of the U.S. Air Force

Richard P. Feynman, theoretical physicist and winner of the 1965 Nobel Prize in Physics

Robert B. Hotz, editor, Aviation Week and Space Technology

Donald J. Kutyna, Air Force general with experience in ICBMs and shuttle management

Sally K. Ride, engineer, astrophysicist and first female American astronaut in space, flew on Challenger as part of missions STS-7 and STS-41-G

Robert W. Rummel, Trans World Airlines executive and aviation consultant to NASA

Joseph F. Sutter, Boeing senior vice president and engineering program director on the Boeing 747 aircraft

Arthur B. C. Walker, Jr, solar physicist and Stanford University professor

Albert D. Wheelon, physicist and developer of Central Intelligence Agency's aerial surveillance program

Charles E. (Chuck) Yeager, retired Air Force general and the first person to break the sound barrier in level flight

Alton G. Keel, Jr., executive director of the commission

The Space Shuttle solid rocket booster field joint assembly (from the Rogers Commission report)

The commission found that the immediate cause of the Challenger accident was a failure in the O-rings sealing the aft field joint on the right solid rocket booster, causing pressurized hot gases and eventually flame to "blow by" the O-ring and contact the adjacent external tank, causing structural failure. The failure of the O-rings was attributed to a design flaw, as their performance could be too easily compromised by factors including the low temperature on the day of launch.

Feynman played a key role in the investigation and rooted out several underlying causes including fundamental lack of understanding of the physical phenomenon at play with o-rings, failure to understand risk, and the role of excessive focus on schedule over safety. (See vol II App f)

The website link is to the report itself at NASA. The file link is to the Feynman appendix.