The Challenger Space Shuttle Disaster: A Case Study in the Analysis of Binary Data Using Scatter Diagrams and Logit Regression

Robert Dixon

Australian Economic Review, 2021, vol. 54, issue 2, 294-305

Abstract: This article offers an instructive example of the usefulness of scatter diagrams and of logit regression in decision making. On the morning of 28 January 1986 a US space shuttle named ‘Challenger’ exploded soon after take‐off killing all seven crew members who were on board. The launch went ahead on a very cold morning despite attempts by a group of engineers to halt it. They argued that it was unsafe to proceed given the likelihood of malfunctions occurring when the temperature was below freezing. They failed to convince the decision makers involved of any strong connection between temperature at launch and the malfunction of a particular crucial part. This articles discusses how the engineers’ proper use of scatter diagrams and/or logit regression would likely have supported a convincing case to delay the launch of the shuttle.

Date: 2021
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8462.12410

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bla:ausecr:v:54:y:2021:i:2:p:294-305

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://ordering.onl ... 7-8462&ref=1467-8462

Access Statistics for this article

Australian Economic Review is currently edited by John de New, Viet Hoang Nguyen and Susan Méndez

More articles in Australian Economic Review from The University of Melbourne, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().