From liftoff to landing: NASA's crisis communications and resulting media coverage following the Challenger and Columbia tragedies

Abstract

NASA's public relations effort following the explosion of the Challenger in 1986 is considered an example of crisis communications failure. After the Columbia disaster in 2003, NASA was praised for its successful handling of the crisis. This paper identifies how four newspapers presented NASA's crisis communication efforts following the two crises, utilizing widely accepted crisis communication concepts associated with stakeholder theory. Results showed that the print media reported that NASA followed specific communicative practices and accorded NASA more positive coverage following the Columbia disaster than the Challenger disaster.