Science Matters lecture with Dr. James R. Hansen, Auburn University historian, covering ethics in engineering and honoring Allan J. McDonald, MSU alumnus and Challenger explosion whistleblower
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On Saturday March 6, 2021, an 83-year-old man living in Ogden, Utah died from the effects of a fall. His name was Allan J. McDonald, and you may never have heard of him, but he did something remarkable.
Allan McDonald received a degree in chemical engineering in 1959 from Montana State University, then went to work for Morton-Thiokol, who manufactured the rockets for the Minuteman intercontinental ballistic missile and later, the solid rocket boosters (SRBs) used by NASA in its space shuttle.
After 26 years with the company, McDonald was on site at Cape Canaveral, Florida to oversee the solid rocket boosters that would power the shuttle Challenger on its tenth flight, which was also the twenty-fifth Space Shuttle flight.
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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.