IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication Jan 1991

The lessons of the Challenger investigations

P.M. Dombrowski

Abstract

It is pointed out that, both in methodology and in findings, the investigations of the Challenger disaster by a Presidential Commission and by a Congressional committee demonstrate that even in highly technical matters meaning is socially constructed. The author examines the evidence and testimony before the investigating bodies and finds that, before the launch, NASA officials construed information about O-ring charring in socially contingent ways and ultimately pressed engineers to work under similar assumptions in declaring the shuttle flightworthy. Although the two investigations examined much the same evidence, differing methodological assumptions led them to different conclusions and recommendations. It is found that both investigations emphasized procedural concerns while largely neglecting personal judgment and responsibility, even though the evidence suggests a key role for personal and social judgment. It is concluded that the field of professional communication needs to become more alert to the role of social factors in technical matters.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">></ETX>

Journal
IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication
Published
1991-01-01
DOI
10.1109/47.108666
CompPile
Open Access
Closed
Topics
professional writing
Export
BibTeX RIS

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (31)

  1. Lambrecht (2025)
    Risk Revisited: The Role of Technical Communication in Negotiating Barriers to …
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  3. Weber (2016)
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  4. Williams (2012)
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  5. Williams (2009)
    Understanding Public Policy Development as a Technological Process
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  1. Knievel (2008)
    Rupturing Context, Resituating Genre: A Study of Use-of-Force Policy in the Wak…
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  2. Dombrowski (2007)
    The Evolving Face of Ethics in Technical and Professional Communication: Challe…
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  3. Dombrowski (2006)
    The Two Shuttle Accident Reports: Context and Culture in Technical Communication
    Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
  4. Dombrowski (2006)
    The Two Shuttle Accident Reports: Context and Culture in Technical Communication
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  5. Williams et al. (2004)
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  6. Dombrowski (2002)
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    Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
  7. Dombrowski (2001)
    Plastic Language for Plastic Science: The Rhetoric of Comrade Lysenko
    Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
  8. Smith (2000)
    Writing public policy: A practicum
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  9. Dombrowski (2000)
    Ethics and Technical Communication: The Past Quarter Century
    Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
  10. Dombrowski (2000)
    Ethics and Technical Communication: The Past Quarter Century
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  11. SAUER (1998)
    Embodied Knowledge: The Textual Representation of Embodied Sensory Information …
    Written Communication
  12. SMITH (1997)
    Intertextual Connections to “A Humanistic Rationale for Technical Writing”
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  13. Gross et al. (1997)
    The Challenger Disaster And The Revival Of Rhetoric In Organizational Life
    Argumentation
  14. SAUER (1996)
    Communicating Risk in a Cross-Cultural Context: A Cross-Cultural Comparison of …
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  15. Dombrowski (1995)
    Post‐modernism as the resurgence of humanism in technical communication studies
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  16. Dombrowski (1995)
    Can ethics be technologized? Lessons from Challenger, philosophy, and rhetoric
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  17. Grove (1995)
    Speaking for the environment
    IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication
  18. Sauer (1994)
    The dynamics of disaster: A three‐dimensional view of documentation in a tightl…
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  19. Mirel (1994)
    Debating nuclear energy: Theories of risk and purposes of communication
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  20. RIVERS (1994)
    Studies in the History of Business and Technical Writing: A Bibliographical Essay
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  21. Dombrowski (1994)
    Challengerthrough the Eyes of Feyerabend
    Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
  22. Dombrowski (1994)
    Challengerthrough the Eyes of Feyerabend
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  23. Sauer (1993)
    Revisioning Sixteenth Century Solutions to Twentieth Century Problems in Herber…
    Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
  24. Dombrowski (1992)
    Challengerand the social contingency of meaning: Two lessons for the technical …
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  25. Sauer (1992)
    The engineer as rational man: the problem of imminent danger in a non-rational …
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  26. Bosley (1992)
    Gender and visual communication: toward a feminist theory of design
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    IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication
  14. feyerabend (1988)
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  15. (1986)
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CrossRef global citation count: 42 View in citation network → Build reading path →

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