The National Aeronautics and Space Administration, commonly known as NASA, is an independent agency of the United States federal government. NASA strives to achieve advancements in science, technology, aeronautics and space exploration to improve knowledge, education, innovation, economic vitality and land management. Some of their successful ventures include the Apollo 11 mission and the placement of the Juno space probe which orbits the planet Jupiter. Since NASA was officially established in 1958, it has continued to break new barriers of triumph and conquer missions considered unattainable. However, despite NASA's countless accomplishments, it has also had its fair share of failures. One of the most well-known incidents was the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster on January 28, 1986. This deadly event claimed the lives of seven crew members in just 73 seconds after launch. After this tragic event, a special commission was appointed by the President of the United States to investigate the disaster. After 32 months of investigation, the report states that the loss of the Space Shuttle Challenger was caused by a failure of the joint between the two lower segments of the solid rocket's right engine. The specific failure was the destruction of seals intended to prevent hot gases from escaping through the seal 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 that was also a key element of the accident: NASA's ineffective decision-making process, poor organizational and cultural issues, and ineffective communication. Overconfidence bias, escalation of commitment bias, and confirmation bias were all underlying human biases that resulted in poor decision-making at NASA that led to disaster. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay NASA had many impressive accomplishments before the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster. Their continued success led them to develop an overconfidence bias in their decision-making process, which ultimately caused them to overlook safety above all else when making crucial decisions. Overconfidence bias in decision-making suggests that NASA believes too much in its own abilities to make the right decisions, especially outside of its area of ​​expertise. After further analysis, the Commission concluded that the cause of the Challenger accident was due to a pressure seal failure in the aft seal of the right Solid Rocket Boost. The faulty 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 until the launch of the Challenger. Mission security was compromised due to launch decision-makers' distorted view of the launch. Evidence in NASA's system for tracking anomalies during flight readiness assessments failed before launch. The fact that previous shuttle launches showed a history of persistent O-ring erosion and leaks makes it clear that NASA leaders and engineers were overconfident about their early success and neglected mission safety by carelesssupporting data and analysis before making decisions. a good decision. Overconfidence in their accuracy has overshadowed the safety importance of the identified O-ring issues. The flight was ultimately allowed to launch due to the overconfidence bias exhibited by all parties involved. NASA's overconfidence in itself and its judgments allowed it to ignore its vulnerability to bias and error. Their overconfidence bias caused them to miss warning signs of a problem that led to the rapid breakdown of the Space Shuttle system, resulting in irreversible damage. Due to NASA's enormous reputation and continued successes, they had a chip placed on their shoulders to achieve a positive outcome in the Challenger mission. This has led NASA to adopt a human bias of intensifying engagement in its decision-making process. This human bias is defined as an increasing commitment to a decision despite flawed evidence. Everything seemed rushed for NASA in the days leading up to the Challenger disaster. Several problems caused the official launch of the Challenger to be postponed several times. The Challenger launch was originally scheduled for July 1985, but was later delayed until late November to accommodate changes in payloads. The launch was then further delayed and rescheduled for January 22, 1986, but did not officially launch until January 28, 1986. Even with six additional days to work, it was a rash decision on NASA's part to let the Challenger embarked on its mission since unresolved issues still existed before launch. The stress NASA faced in achieving another successful and timely launch caused it to continue with its initial decisions and actions instead of changing course. Top NASA officials argued that new stories of delays and aborted launches in the weeks leading up to Challenger's launch had created "98 percent of the pressure" to continue the ill-fated mission. NASA's decision to launch the Challenger was saturated with confirmation bias throughout the process. 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. "Another greater pressure to launch the Challenger was from space agencies with an unrealistic timetable, which called for 15 shuttle launches in 1986." NASA was motivated by all the other successful launches and became ineffective in gathering information because it only focused its time and attention on analyzing successful launches. Many of them began to formulate opinions or prejudices that they would like to be true even if they weren't. Once they have formed this view, they have adopted information that confirms that view while ignoring or rejecting information that casts doubt on that view. For example, launches in the past have narrowly escaped disaster despite persistent O-ring erosion and explosions, creating false optimism among NASA workers that nothing would go wrong. Confirmation bias appears clearly here due to the direct influence of desire on beliefs. Previous accident-free launches have prompted NASA to reject any claims that the space shuttle Challenger was prone to serious safety problems. Confirmation bias suggests that they did not perceive the circumstances in a positive way...