After the disaster, NASA pumped $2 billion into several hundred improvements. Besides equipment upgrades that included an escape hatch in the shuttles and completely redesigned solid rocket boosters, the space agency implemented major changes to its culture. NASA instituted better accountability practices and bulked up its safety crews. The accountability improvements included a revamped management structure to "eliminate" the "tendency of management isolation" and a forum "for healthy debate" in which to discuss potential technical problems, according to a 2010 NASA report. The agency also funneled more astronauts with real-world experience into management positions.
NASA scaled back the Shuttle program's flight schedule and began using reusable rockets to launch satellites into space. The agency also stopped using its Manned Maneuvering units — the backpack propulsion devices used by Shuttle astronauts to move around outside the Shuttles — and took astronauts off satellite repair duties as further safety measures for its astronauts. The space agency also created the new Office of Safety, Reliability, and Quality Assurance, responsible for "safety, reliability, and quality assurance functions related to all NASA activities and programs" and "for the direction of reporting and documentation of problems, problem resolution, and trends associated with safety," per its July 1986 response to the Rogers Commission (via NASA).
