William Ray Lucas, who led the NASA facility, who was responsible for much of the responsibility for the 1986 Space Shuttle Challenger explosion, died. Lucas was 102.
Lucas passed away Monday at his home in Huntsville, Alabama, according to an obituary published Friday by Loughlin Service Funeral Home in Huntsville. The funeral is set for March 1st, his 103rd birthday, funeral director Brian Peak said Saturday.
Lucas was the director of the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville. On January 28th, 1986, the Challenger exploded, just 73 seconds after he left Cape Canaveral, Florida. It was the most deadly US spaceflight disaster of its time.
The explosion killed all seven crew members, including school teacher Christa McAuliffe. Her participation in the flight meant that thousands of school children across the country saw the launch of Challengers and witnessed the televised disaster in real time.
The presidential committee, accused of investigating the cause of the explosion, pointed out the shuttle’s solid fuel booster rocket as a possible culprit, criticizing NASA managers for not taking the safety surrounding the rocket more seriously did. The Marshall Center oversaw the development of the rocket.
Lucas pushed back criticism and told reporters a month after the explosion that it was too early to identify the cause of the explosion, adding, “I think it was a healthy decision to release it.”
Related Stories
However, within a few months he resigned, just days before the release of a committee report denounced the wrong design of the booster rocket.
The explosions and the resulting shaking within NASA veiled what would otherwise have been a great career for Lucas, born and raised in western Tennessee and graduating from high school in 1939. He received his Bachelor of Science from Memphis State University, served in the US Navy during World War II, and later received his PhD in Metallurgy from Vanderbilt University.
Lucas began his career in the US Army Redstone Arsenal’s Guided Missile Development Division near Huntsville. He became a charter member of the Marshall Space Flight Center when it was founded in 1960 and rose to rank in 1974 to become a director.
Margery A. Beck
