We all remember the images; plumes of smoke heading off at impossible angles, the look on Christa McAuliffe's Mom's face turning from excitement to horror. I know that for me they're burned into my brain. The 1986 Space Shuttle Challenger disaster was one of those defining moments in history. Now, Florence Cardinal, the About Guide to Sleep Disorders has a theory about why it occurred.
In her article, Sleep Deprivation and Disasters, Flo discusses several disasters from Three mile Island to a 2001 Michigan train wreck, where fatigue possibly played a large role. She says, "The managers who authorized the launch prior to the Challenger explosion in 1986 had had little sleep the night before. The mission, beset by problems from the start, had kept crews working around the clock to iron out problems."
While the primary cause of the disaster was a fuel leak caused by a faulty o-ring, it's definitely possible that all those poor decisions were caused by a lack of sleep. The commission that investigated the incident not only found fault with the failed sealant ring but also with the officials at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) who allowed the shuttle launch to take place despite concerns voiced by NASA engineers.
Image Credit: NASA
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