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Allan McDonald, engineer who refused to approve Challenger launch, dies in Utah
OGDEN, Utah (KSL) Allan McDonald, the whistleblower and engineer sent by contractor Morton Thiokol to approve the 1986 Challenger space shuttle launch but who refused to sign off, has died in Ogden at age 83, according to NPR.
McDonald was overruled by NASA and company management prior to the Challenger explosion 73 seconds after its launch on Jan. 28, 1986; all seven astronauts aboard were killed, including schoolteacher Christa McAuliffe, who was to be the first civilian in space.
McDonald’s family said that he died on Saturday in Ogden following a fall and suffering brain damage, NPR reported.
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.
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