It isn't <i>quite</i> a scientific paper, but Feynman's "Personal Observations on the Reliability of the Shuttle", <a href="http://www.fotuva.org/feynman/challenger-appendix.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.fotuva.org/feynman/challenger-appendix.html</a>, published as an appendix to the commission's report is an excellent piece of work.