William R. Lucas, Official Blamed in Challenger Tragedy, Dies at 102

[mahatmakanejeeves]

William R. Lucas, Official Blamed in Challenger Tragedy, Dies at 102
The strong-willed director of NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, he failed to pass on warnings from engineers that the space shuttle launch was at risk.


William R. Lucas, director of the Marshall Space Flight Center, in 1986, speaking to a presidential commission investigating the Challenger explosion. The center supervised the design and building of the booster rocket whose failure caused the accident. Marilynn K. Yee/The New York Times

By Trip Gabriel
Published Feb. 21, 2025
Updated Feb. 24, 2025

William R. Lucas, who oversaw development of rockets for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and shouldered much of the institutional blame for the catastrophic explosion that killed all seven astronauts aboard the Challenger space shuttle in 1986, died on Feb. 10 at his home in Huntsville, Ala. He was 102. ... His family confirmed the death.

Dr. Lucas was described as a strong-willed, even autocratic director of the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, which supervised the design and building of the booster rocket whose failure caused the fatal breakup of the Challenger in Florida just 73 seconds after liftoff. ... The sickening explosion, on a clear and cold January morning, was witnessed by children in classrooms across the country because the crew included Christa McAuliffe, who was to be the first American schoolteacher in space.


The space shuttle Challenger, carrying seven astronauts, lifted off on Jan. 28, 1986, at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. NASA/Getty Images


The shuttle exploded 73 seconds after liftoff, killing all aboard, including Christa McAuliffe, who was to be the first American schoolteacher in space. Corbis/VCG, via Getty Images

Investigators determined that the accident was caused by the failure of a rubber seal, known as an O-ring, on one of two booster rockets, which were attached to the shuttle like a jetpack to propel it skyward. ... The night before the launch, Dr. Lucas was told that engineers were insisting that the mission be delayed because of cold weather, which they feared would cause the O-rings to fail and leak combustible gasses.

{snip}

A correction was made on Feb. 22, 2025: An earlier version of this obituary referred incorrectly to Christa McAuliffe, one of the astronauts killed in the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger. She was to be the first American teacher in space, not the first American civilian.

When we learn of a mistake, we acknowledge it with a correction. If you spot an error, please let us know at [e-mail] more

Trip Gabriel is a Times reporter on the Obituaries desk. More about Trip Gabriel

[Basso8vb]

1. Why is it that these pieces of shit get to live so long?

[ProfessorGAC]

3. If I Believed In Such Things...

. .I'd suggest there's a special spot in hell for him where he hears tge warnings read out loud while watching and endless loop of the shuttle exploding. For all eternity.
BTW: I'll never be convinced that a call wasn't made by Don Regan demanding the launch so St. Ronnie could talk about the space teacher in the SOTU address. I'm sure there was high level political pressure applied.

[lapfog_1]

2. Most of the people at NASA blamed someone else

one ORIN HATCH!!! Senator from Utah.

Orin put a stop to the original NON-SEGMENTED SRB selected to be manufactured in New Jersey. It would be shipped to the Kennedy Space Center via the inter-coastal waterway down the eastern seaboard. NASA wanted a single SRB... no seems, no o-rings.

But Hatch, Senator from Utah, wanted Morten-Thiokol to get the contract to make the SRBs in Utah... where they would have to shipped by rail to Florida. That would require them to be in segments to fit on the flatbed rail cars. Thus the fundamental flaw of O-rings, etc. Sure, a lot of lower level engineers raised the alarm because on previous launches in colder temperatures they has already noticed significant "burn through" at the O-rings. The temps caused the O-rings to shrink a small amount, but as the SRB burns into the top segment the exhaust flames would ( under a lot of pressure ) start burning around the O-ring. The engineers had seen this from previous missions.

Richard Feynman was on the disaster review panel that highlighted this design flaw. He came to NASA Ames to give a lecture on this not long before he passed away.

from wikipedia:

Feynman played an important role on the Presidential Rogers Commission, which investigated the 1986 Space Shuttle Challenger disaster. He had been reluctant to participate, but was persuaded by advice from his wife.[180] Feynman clashed several times with commission chairman William P. Rogers. During a break in one hearing, Rogers told commission member Neil Armstrong, "Feynman is becoming a pain in the ass."[181]

During a televised hearing, Feynman demonstrated that the material used in the shuttle's O-rings became less resilient in cold weather by compressing a sample of the material in a clamp and immersing it in ice-cold water.[182] The commission ultimately determined that the disaster was caused by the primary O-ring not properly sealing in unusually cold weather at Cape Canaveral.[183]