From the Rogers Commission to reading Dr. Diane Vaughn’s book The Challenger Launch Decision took me 17 years. For all those years I had learned the wrong lesson about the loss of Challenger. The sound-bite explanation kept me in ignorance. You know, that a rogue manager for venal motives suppressed the concerns of good engineers and true when they tried to stop the launch. As Dr. Vaughn more correctly analyzed the decision “It can truly be said that the Challenger launch decision was a rule-based decision. It was not amorally calculating managers violating rules that were responsible for the tragedy. It was conformity.” The sound-bite explanation was satisfying, easy to live with, and wrong. It failed to ask the more penetrating questions. But even more importantly, it failed to spur specific action. Just feeling anger at a bad decision or sadness at the loss is diffuse and unmotivating. It is imperative that we learn the proper lessons from history and use those to inculcate specific actions and behaviors that will result in safety for our people – and success for our missions.

So, ten years after Columbia, what are the lessons we should have learned and should practice every day? Here are my thoughts especially for those who work in dangerous and risky endeavors.