The Challenger Launch Decision: Risky Technology, Culture, and Deviance at NASA

Why this matters here

Vaughan’s Challenger study shows how NASA normalized deviance: warning signals were reinterpreted inside production pressures until risk looked acceptable without anyone intending catastrophe. How Serious Systems Learn extends that into who pays when systems cannot stay corrigible—costs shift to those who interrupt momentum or, if they fail, downstream to people without voice, while the organization remains internally coherent.