No, it didn't. There were plenty of problems prior to the flight that lost the Challenger, and plenty of problems prior to the flight that lost Columbia. NASA management just refused to pay attention to the engineers that were telling them there were problems.

I was absolutely shocked that only after the Columbia accident the underside of the craft was inspected in orbit. It shocks me that in more than a hundred flights, nobody in NASA management had enough curiosity to force someone to look for significant tile damage made during the ascent.

Learning how to build and fly things in air and space is pretty much the agency's job description.