Utahn Allan McDonald dies at 83; tried to stop the Challenger launch
(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Allan McDonald of Ogden picuted in 2016. McDonald, a Morton-Thiokol engineer, was director of the program that made the rocket boosters that included sets of o-rings between the rocket sections for the Space Shuttle. He refused to sign off on the Challenger launch in 1986, though NASA launched anyway and the shuttle blew up shortly after launch.
By Clay Risen | The New York Times
| March 10, 2021, 4:54 p.m. | Updated: 5:39 p.m.
Allan J. McDonald, an engineer who on a chilly January morning in 1986 tried to stop the launch of the Challenger space shuttle, citing the possible effect of the cold on its booster rockets, and who, after it broke apart on liftoff, blew the whistle when government officials tried to cover up his dissent, died Saturday in Ogden. He was 83.