“What is the cause of management’s fantastic faith in the machinery?”
That was Richard Feyman’s humbling question to NASA after being appointed by the Secretary of State to figure out how the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded in 1986. The shuttle itself was unique—built “at the edge of previous, or outside of, previous engineering experience.” A lot went into understanding the unique interaction of solid fuel rockets, liquid fuel engines, and avionics. But in the end, despite analysis from engineers, astronauts, and military men, it was a Cal Tech physicist who found that the gaskets (or O-rings) couldn’t survive in the cold.