Part 2: Fantastic Figures Summary and Analysis

The Commission is split into groups with Richard spending most of his time in General Kutyna's group, which is leading the Accident Analysis group. This group travels to Marshal Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. One of the range safety officers has the responsibility of placing self-destruct charges on the rockets. The perceived chances of failure of manned rockets are one in 100,000. However, these self-destruct charges are routinely placed on them. Without them, the more perilous scenario of a doomed rocket flying around loose and ready to explode upon impact would be far worse than having to destroy a rocket remotely.

Richard determines that there are no good lines of communication between management and the actual working teams in both the booster rockets and engine areas. Management seems too willing to accept errors while the engineers and...