“Normally we were always challenged to prove it was safe to launch,” McDonald said in “Challenger: The Final Flight,” a recent Netflix documentary. McDonald later recounted that after some pressure from NASA, the engineers’ concerns were overridden and his boss instead signed off on the launch. The sign-off was a needed step in the safety protocols. 27, 1986, multiple engineers on McDonald’s team refused to sign off on the launch. Pressure from NASAĭuring a conference call with NASA on Jan. The temperatures were expected to drop the night before the Challenger launch to just 18 degrees. McDonald cited three concerns, according to NPR: “freezing overnight temperatures that could compromise the booster rocket joints ice forming on the launchpad and spacecraft that could damage the orbiter heat tiles at launch and a forecast of rough seas at the booster rocket recovery site.” McDonald was responsible for the two booster rockets and was sent to Kennedy Space Center in Florida before the launch of the Challenger space shuttle, tasked with signing off on the launch.īut McDonald had reservations regarding the launch, as did other Morton Thiokol engineers in Utah. McDonald worked as an engineer for NASA contractor Morton Thiokol, the company that helped build the Challenger space shuttle’s solid rocket boosters at its northern Utah plant. Engineer refused to sign off on Challenger launch McDonald’s family said that he died on Saturday in Ogden following a fall and suffering brain damage, NPR reported. 28, 1986 all seven astronauts aboard were killed, including schoolteacher Christa McAuliffe, who was to be the first civilian in space. McDonald was overruled by NASA and company management prior to the Challenger explosion 73 seconds after its launch on Jan. OGDEN - 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.
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