Allan McDonald, engineer and whistleblower in Challenger disaster, dies at 83
He tried to postpone the fateful 1986 space shuttle launch over safety concerns, but was overruled by superiors.
By Emily LangerThe Washington Post
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Allan McDonald, a rocket scientist and whistleblower who refused to sign off on the space shuttle Challenger’s launch over safety concerns and, after its explosion, argued that the tragedy could have been averted had officials heeded warnings from engineers like himself, died March 6 at a hospital in Ogden, Utah. He was 83.
The cause was complications from a recent fall, said his daughter Lora McDonald.
For the millions of Americans who turned on their television sets to watch the Challenger take off on Jan. 28, 1986, the image of the space shuttle blowing apart in midair – killing seven astronauts, including New Hampshire schoolteacher Christa McAuliffe – was seared into their memory. The disaster is often described as an event on the order
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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.