Kutyna is perhaps most famous for his aid in several investigations of NASA launch failures, especially his membership on the Rogers Commission investigating the loss of the Space Shuttle "Challenger". He was particularly critical of NASA's decision to allow the shuttle to keep flying despite knowledge of the catastrophic O-ring flaw that ultimately led to the disaster. He likened this situation to an airline allowing a plane to fly despite evidence that one of its wings was about to fall off. While serving, he befriended fellow panelist Richard Feynman, who later described their partnership in his humorous memoir "What Do You Care What Other People Think?". The partnership of Kutyna and Feynman was critical in the discovery and publication of the cause of the "Challenger" disaster: Kutyna told Feynman about how he was repairing his car and discovered that some seals failed due to low temperatures that morning. That inspired Feynman, who discovered the truth about O-ring weakness: they lack elasticity when at or below a temperature of degrees, such as the morning of the accident. Feynman knew an astronaut had given Kutyna the crucial piece of information that led to his O-Ring insight; Kutyna later revealed that it was Sally Ride, a member of the investigation commission at the time: