On January 28, 1986, at approximately 11:39a. m. the space shuttle challenger exploded in front of the whole world, whether you were sitting, standing, or listening, it was a tragedy that should have been and could have been easily prevented. It involved physically killing seven passengers aboard the space shuttle Challenger and mentally killing their families and close friends that were not aboard. If only NASA had just listen and Morton Thiokol stood by their engineers, then maybe those seven passengers would still be alive, and this sad tragedy would have never happened. write me an essay online free
In reading the articles concerning the explosion of the Challenger and the action taken by Boisjoly, I found there to be many ethical issues. To understand just what ethical issues were involved, you must understand what exactly being ethical means. Ethics is defined as society’s accepted standards of moral behavior, that is, behaviors accepted by society as right rather than wrong. In knowing this, Boisjoly went out on a limb, destroyed his career, and became know as a whistleblower all because he tried to do the right thing.
He began by warning his managers at Morton Thiokol that the O-ring joints would fail on the Challenger’s mission and cause the explosion, then they went to NASA, and from there Boisjoly spilled the entire truth to the whole world. Morton Thiokol had to of known this day would come considering, they hired Boisjoly in 1980, to keep the O-rings joints operational because they were already determined to be faulty, but Morton felled to do there job and because of that, seven people lost their lives.
Morton acted unethical when they gave the go ahead for NASA to launch the Challenger on that cold January 28, 1986, day because they found it to be difficult to balance ethics and other goals such as pleasing NASA and advancing in the business world. NASA on the other hand, also acted in an unethical manner because they were made aware of the O-rings being faulty and told the conscious that would happen if the Challenger was launched, but pushed Morton to change there mind because they didn’t want to have another cancellation of the launch.
My question is “What about the passengers”, did anyone ever consider them and if what Boisjoly had stated would happen to the Challenger if launch or were other goals more important? There was no one to speak for these seven dead passengers, his or her families, and close friends, so Boisjoly stepped up to the plate and ethically did the right thing. I am sure Morton feels Boisjoly acted unethical towards them because he took an oath to stand by Mortan since that was his employer, but Mortan should have stood by there engineer and this sad tragedy could have been prevented.
In conclusion, had I of found myself to be in Boisjoly’s position, then I would have done the same thing and been called the whistleblower. I feel Morton Thiokol and NASA both acted in an unethical and professional way, which caused people to loss their lives. Sure there maybe many more space shuttles that will explode in the future, but it wouldn’t have been on this day had everyone involved done the right thing. The only good thing that did come out of this tragedy, which may help prevent this from ever happening again, is greater powers have been given to engineer working in, and for, NASA to express dissent and call off flights.
