The National Aeronautics and Space Administration, commonly known as NASA, is an independent agency of the United States federal government. NASA is committed to making advances in science, technology, aeronautics and space exploration to improve knowledge, education, innovation, economic vitality and stewardship of the Earth. Some of their successful initiatives include the Apollo 11 mission and the placement of the Juno space probe orbiting the planet Jupiter. Since NASA was officially founded in 1958, they have continued to break new barriers of triumph and conquer missions thought unattainable. However, despite NASA's countless successes, they have also had their fair share of failures. One of the most well-known accidents is the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster that occurred on January 28, 1986. This fatal event claimed the lives of seven crew members just 73 seconds after launch. After this tragic event occurred, the President of the United States appointed a special commission to investigate the disaster. After an extensive 32-month investigation, the report indicated that the loss of the Space Shuttle Challenger was caused by a failure in the joint between the two lower segments of the right solid rocket motor. The specific failure was the destruction of seals that are intended to prevent hot gases from escaping through the joint during combustion of the rocket engine's propellant. The evidence gathered by the Commission indicates that no other element of the Space Shuttle system contributed to this failure. The committee also revealed a more disturbing finding, which was also a key element contributing to the accident: NASA's inefficient decision-making process, poor organizational and cultural issues, as well as ineffective communication. Overconfidence bias, escalating commitment bias, and confirmation bias were all underlying human biases that led to poor decision making at NASA that led to the disaster. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay NASA had many impressive accomplishments before the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster. Their continued success has led them to develop an overconfidence bias in their decision making, eventually causing them to overlook safety first when making crucial decisions. Overconfidence in decision making suggests that NASA believes too much in its own abilities to make good decisions, especially when they are outside of its area of ​​expertise. After further analysis, the Commission concluded that the cause of the Challenger crash was due to a pressure seal failure in the aft joint of the right Solid Rocket Boost. The flawed design of the O-ring problem was known to many NASA engineers, but overconfidence crept in and NASA decided not to perform further analysis of O-ring erosion trends before launch of the Challenger. Mission safety was jeopardized due to decision makers' distorted view of the launch. Tests in NASA's anomaly monitoring system for flight readiness reviews failed before launch. The fact that previous shuttle launches have shown a history of persistent O-ring erosion and blowout makes it clear that NASA managers and engineers were overconfident about their initial success and overlooked mission safety by neglecting data support and analyzes before carrying out the mission. aappropriate decision. Overconfidence in their accuracy has overshadowed the safety importance of the identified O-ring problems. The flight was ultimately allowed to take off due to the overconfidence shown by all parties involved. NASA's overconfidence in themselves and their own judgments allowed them to ignore their own vulnerability to bias and error. Their excessive confidence meant that they missed warning signs of a problem that led to the rapid disintegration of the Space Shuttle system, causing irreversible damage. Because of NASA's tremendous reputation and continued success, they had a chip on their shoulders to achieve a successful outcome on the Challenger mission. This has led to NASA having the human bias of escalation of commitment in their decision making. This human bias is defined as an increasing commitment to a decision despite bad evidence. Everything seemed rushed for NASA in the days leading up to the Challenger disaster. Various problems have caused the official launch of the Challenger to be postponed several times. The Challenger launch was originally scheduled for July 1985, but then postponed to late November to accommodate changes in payloads. The launch was subsequently delayed further and rescheduled for January 22, 1986, but did not officially launch until January 28, 1986. Even with six additional days available, it was a reckless decision on NASA's part to have Challenger embark on its mission considering that There were still unresolved issues before launch. The stress NASA faced to make another timely and successful launch pushed them to move forward with their original decisions and actions instead of altering their course. Senior NASA officials argued that new stories about delays and aborted launches in the weeks leading up to the Challenger launch had created "98 percent of the pressure" to move forward with the ill-fated mission. NASA's decision to launch Challenger has been saturated with confirmations around the world. their decision-making process. Confirmation bias occurs when people selectively gather information that reaffirms their past choice and current decision, and discard information that contradicts it. . NASA was motivated by all the other successful launches and became inefficient at gathering information because it focused its time and attention only on analyzing successful launches. Many of them have started to form opinions or prejudices that they wish were true even if they weren't. Once they have formed this view, they have embraced information that confirms it, while ignoring or rejecting information that challenges it. For example, launches in the past have narrowly escaped disaster despite a history of persistent O-ring erosion and blowouts, creating false optimism among NASA workers that nothing would go wrong. Confirmation bias is clearly shown here by the direct influence of desire on beliefs. The past uneventful launches had prompted NASA to reject any claims that the Space Shuttle Challenger was subject to serious safety problems. Confirmation bias suggests that they have not perceived the circumstances objectively and have only gathered information that confirms their biases. It developed among anxious individuals while they were under extreme stress from managing a heavy throwing schedule. NASA's inefficient organizational and cultural factors have made it possible for these human biases to creep into the minds of NASA leaders, thus influencing their decision-making ability. . The Commission concluded that.