Q1 (4 mark). "Could data analysis have saved the

Challenger?"

January 1986: the Challenger shuttle exploded 1 minute into

flight, killing all 7 astronauts aboard. On the night before the

launch, engineers warned NASA that it was suspected that

rocket booster O-rings failed at low temperatures.

The forecast for launch day was an unusually cool 30 F (-1

°C). The full NASA data set (in chronological order) is shown

below in table 1 and table 2.

Table 1. Launches with O-ring failures.

Launch temperature (F) Number of O-ring failures

70

1

57

70

53

75

58

68

67

72

73

70

78

67

67

75

Launch temperature (F) Number of O-ring failures

66

0

69

0

0

0

70

1

1

81

76

79

76

Table 2. Launches without O-ring failure.

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

If you'd had this data available, would you have

recommended to abort the mission? Use two most suitable

hypothesis tests that you have leant in this unit to answer this

question. The methods can be from either Module 1 or

Module 2.