Speaking Truth at the Edge: Leadership Lessons from the Columbia Disaster

What really causes catastrophic failure?

It’s rarely a lack of intelligence, data, or expertise.

More often, it’s silence, filtered truths, and decisions made at the edge of uncertainty.

In this episode of EDGE Talks, we speak with Rodney Rocha, former Chief Engineer at NASA and a central voice in uncovering the systemic failures behind the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster.

This is not a retrospective.

It’s a conversation about leadership under pressure, risk at the edge, and why organizations repeatedly fail to hear what they most need to know.

If you work in complex, high-risk systems—mining, energy, healthcare, aviation, infrastructure—this conversation is for you.

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