Exhibit 1198 ยท Commission report (printed testimony)
Report of the Presidential Commission on the Space Shuttle Challenger Accident, vol. 1, ch. V: testimony of Robert Lund on the 27 January 1986 Marshall-Thiokol teleconference
We had to prove to them that we weren't ready, and so we got ourselves in the thought process that we were trying to find some way to prove to them it wouldn't work, and we were unable to do that.
Robert Lund of Thiokol was asked by Mr. Mason to take off his engineering hat and put on his management hat. Asked by Chairman Rogers why he changed position, he describes a reversed burden of proof: Thiokol had to prove the motor would fail, not that it would work.
- Source
- Presidential Commission on the Space Shuttle Challenger Accident (testimony printed in the Commission report)
- Date
- 1986
- Quoted from
- Chapter V, Lund testimony (Rogers-Lund exchange), p. 94
- Grade
- Primary record
- Document
- https://history.nasa.gov/rogersrep/v1ch5.htm
- Accessed
- 2026-11-10
- Cited by
- Findings citing this exhibit
- Note
- Boisjoly's account of the "management hat" instruction is at p. 93. Testimony is printed in the Commission's own report.