The Rogers Commission and Feynman's demonstration

President Ronald Reagan appointed an independent investigative commission chaired by former Secretary of State William P. Rogers. Hearings ran from 6 to 25 February 1986.

Commission member Richard Feynman famously dunked a sample of O-ring rubber into ice water at a televised public hearing, demonstrating how it lost its resilience in the cold — a simple demonstration that made the technical cause of the accident clear to the public.

The commission's final report, issued on 9 June 1986, confirmed the O-ring failure as the immediate cause but also criticized NASA's decision-making process — the Thiokol engineers' warnings had been overruled before launch under pressure to keep to the flight schedule.

◉ Real photograph