NASA's Catastrophic Disasters: Can a Culture Be Lethal?

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Can a Culture be Lethal?
Summary
The author seeks a rational contextualization of organizational challenges. He examines if the recurrency of disasters at NASA should be attributed to the corporate culture. NASA has endured three subsequent catastrophic disasters starting with the Apollo 1 space shuttle explosion on its pad, followed by the Challenger Space Shuttle’s 73 seconds into flight eleven years later. The recently recorded accident occurred in 2003, seventeen years after the explosion of the Challenger Shuttle. The Columbia Space Shuttle exploded while heading for its landing site in Florida, claiming the lives of its seven-member crew in the skies of East Texas. The author indicates that the disaster consumed a $2 billion investment.
Moreover, the recurrency pointed to an inherent flaw in the organization’s operations. The constituted investigation board attributed the accidents to NASA’s history and culture. In the Columbia shuttle explosion, the proximate cause was a thermal protection system breach on the shuttle’s left-wing. The breach resulted in the penetration of the insulation of the left-wing by superheated air, causing the melting of its aluminum structure. The events led to the incapacitation of the shuttle through the destruction of the Orbiter.
Argument
The author presents a general argument that an organizational culture directly influences organizational performance. It devolves to deduce the unfortunate events registered in an organization, such as accidents, as the product of a toxic corporate culture. The deduction highlights reputable organizations that generated some of the most famous catastrophes. Despite NASA’s adventurous profile, it has succumbed to deleterious spaceship crashes, including the Columbia, Challenger, and Apollo. If the author’s argument holds, one can describe NASA as lethal. Such a conclusion can effectively mitigate the accidental risks rather than their futile description as accidents. Despite effectively determining the cause of the explosion, the constituted board sought to expand the scope of the investigation to incorporate the history and culture of NASA. The move was welcome, given the recurrence of the explosion incidents.
Analysis
The author’s argument is essential for an exhaustive analysis of the disasters. One cannot effectivel...