William Lucas, a key NASA figure during the 1986 Space Shuttle Challenger disaster, has died in Alabama. He was 102.
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According to the New York Post, Lucas died at his home in Huntsville on Monday. His funeral will be held on Mar. 1, which would have been his 103rd birthday.
William Lucas was the director of the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, when the Challenger exploded on Jan. 28, 1986. The shutter met its devastating fate 73 seconds after its liftoff from Cape Canaveral, Florida.
The explosion was dubbed the deadliest U.S. space flight disaster at that time, killing all seven crew members, including Christa McAuliffe, a schoolteacher who made history as being the first U.S. civilian to travel to space. She was a payload specialist.
Francis R. Scobee, Michael J. Smith, Ellison S. Onizuka, Judith A. Resnik, Ronald E. McNair, and Gregory B. Jarvis were also onboard the ill-fated shutter.
A presidential commission later revealed that one of the shuttle’s solid-fuel booster rockets was believed to be the cause of the Challenger explosion. The commission members criticized NASA managers, accusing them of not taking safety concerns more seriously.
William Lucas Pushed Back Against Criticism Following the Challenger Disaster
NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center was responsible for supervising the rockets’ development. While pushing back at the criticism, William Lucas told reporters weeks after the Challenger disaster that it was too soon to reveal the official cause of the deadly explosion.
He then stated, “I think it was a sound decision to launch.”
However, months after the disaster, Lucas resigned from his position at NASA. Not long after, the commission released its findings, blaming the booster rockets’ “faulty design” for the explosion.
Before the Challenger disaster, Lucas was a charter member of the Marshall Space Flight Center, which was established in 1960.