INVESTIGATION OF THE CHALLENGER ACCIDENT

¶Union Calendar No. 600 99th Congress, 2d Session - - - - - - - - - - - - - House Report 99-1016

¶R E P O R T

OF THE COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES NINETY-NINTH CONGRESS SECOND SESSION

¶OCTOBER29, 1986.-Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the State of the Union and ordered to be printed

U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE

¶64-420 0 WASHINGTON : 1986

COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

¶DON FUQUA, Florida, Chairman ROBERT A. ROE, New Jersey MANUEL LUJAN, JR.; New Mexico GEORGE E. BROWN. JR.. California ROBERT S. WALKER, Pennsylvania JAMES H. SCHEUER, New York F. JAMES SENSENBRENNER, JR., MARILYN LLOYD, Tennessee Wisconsin TIMOTHY E. WIRTH, Colorado CLAUDINE SCHNEIDER, Rhode Island DOUG WALGREN, Pennsylvania SHERWOOD L. BOEBLEKT, New York DAN GLICKMAN, Kansas TOM LEWIS, Florida ROBERT A. YOUNG, Missouri DON RI'ITER, Pennsylvania HAROLD L. VOLKMER, Missouri SID W. MORRISON. Washinaton BILL NELSON, Florida RON PACKARD, California - STAN LUNDINE, New York JAN MEYERS, Kansas RALPH M. HALL, Texas ROBERT C. SMITH, New Hampshire DAVE McCURDY, Oklahoma PAUL B. HENRY, Michigan NORMAN Y. MINETA, California HARRIS W. FAWELL, Illinois BUDDY MAcKAY,'. Florida WILLIAM W. COBEY, JR.,North Carolina TIM VALENTINE, North Carolina JOE BARTON, Texas HARRY M. REID, Nevada D. FRENCH SLAUGHTER, JR., Virginia ROBERT G . TORRICELLI, New Jersey DAVID S. MONSON, Utah RICK BOUCHER, Virginia TERRY BRUCE, Illinois RICHARD H. STALLINGS, Idaho BART GORDON, Tennessee JAMES A. TRAFICANT, JR., Ohio JIM CHAPMAN, Texas

HAROLDP. HANSON,Executive Director ROBERTC. KETCHAM, General Counsel REGINA A. DAVIS,Chief Clerk

THOMAS WEIMER,Republican Staff Director

CHALLENGER ACCIDENT REPORTSTAFFTASKGROUP

¶ROBERTC. K ~ H A M , General Counsel ROBERTE. PALMER RADP~RD BYERLY, Jr. GEORGES. KOPP RONALDE. WILLIAMS HARRYS. DAWSON, Jr.

PATRICIA G. GARFINKEL HARRIETJ . SMITH

SCOTT CROSSFIELD NEUONL. MILDER CAROLYN C. GREENFELD CAROLYN J . RADABAUGH DAVIDD. CLEMENT JAM=PAUL SHIRLEY J . WATSON GLORIAJ . DUNDERMAN

¶'Ranking Republican Member.

¶"Serving on Committee on the Budget for 99th Congress

¶(11)

LETTER OF SUBMITTAL

U.S.HOUSEOF REPRESENTATIVES, Washington, DC, October 29, 1986.

¶Hon. THOMAS P. O'NEILL,Jr., The Speaker of the US.House of Representatives, Washington, DC.

¶DEARMR. SPEAKER:

¶By direction of the Committee on Science and Technology,¹¹ For the purpose of this report, a procedure is a formal set of instructions designed to guide and assist in the performance of a technical or management function. g8 mid., July 24, 1986, p. 11. hereby submit the Committee's investigative report on the Chal- lenger accident. The report was approved by the Committee on Oc- tober 7, 1986. The report was carried out under the direction of the Ranking Majority Member, Robert A. Roe, who chaired the hear- ings and instructed the Committee staff assigned to the investiga- tion.

Sincerely, DONFUQUA,Chairman.

¶Enclosure.

¶(111)

LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL

U.S. HOUSEOF REPRESENTATIVES, COMMITPEE ON SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, Washington, OC,October 29, 1986.

¶To Robert A. Roe, Ranking Majority Member, Committee on Science and Technology.

¶DEARMR. CHAIRMAN:

¶I a m forwarding this investigative report on the Challenger Acci- dent prepared at your request.

¶On your instructions, the staff has carefully reviewed the infor- mation made available to the Committee and prepared the neces- sary findings and recommendations. The task was enormous and has been done in a careful and painstaking manner. I am especial- ly grateful to all the staff which is listed on the inside cover of the report for their professional and thorough application to this im- portant report. We worked in a collegial manner and on a com- pletely bipartisan basis. I particularly want to thank the three group leaders, Ron Williams, Terry Dawson and Harriet Smith who headed up the respective subgroups for the Accident, the Tech- nical, and the Management Issues.

Sincerely, ROBERTC. KETCHAM,General Counsel.

CONTENTS Page I. INTRODUCTION......................................... ........................................... 11. CONCLUSIONS 111. C~MPILATION OF ISSUES,FINDINGS, AND RECOMMENDATIONS .......................... IV. B~CKGROUND — 35
V. THEACCIDENT — 39

¶............................... ......................... ...................... ...................... VII. CASINGJOINTDESIGN ........ ............................. ...................... VIII. LAUNCHOPERATIONS ......... I x . DEFINITION OF TERMS AND X. APPENDICES ......................... V-A .............................. .......................... lVlll

vrrr Page V-G — 285
286 288 290 292 319 321 327 369 376 278 280 VIII-B — 384
V I I I C — 387
VIII-D — 393
.....................,...........................,................................,.. 395 ...............,................................., — 406
...............,....,..* ..........,....,..,...........,...................., — 417
VIII-H — 425
VIII-I ............................................................................................................. .. 428 VIII-J — 434
. VIII-K ... ............................................ ................................... ,.,.,......,, — 438

¶Union Calendar No. 600 9 9 ~ ~

CONGRESS

¶2d session } HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES I REPORT gg-io16

INVESTIGATION OF THE CHALLENGER ACCIDENT

¶OCTOBES29, 1986.-Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the State of the Union and ordered to be printed

Mr. FUQUA, from the Committee on Science and Teshnology, submitted the following