Space Shuttle Solid Rocket Booster (SRB) engineer and the man who refused to be cowed by his management or NASA, Allan McDonald, has died at the age of 83. McDonald was the morally courageous engineer who refused to sign off on the SRBs as safe before the Space Shuttle Challenger accident in January 1986 – to the chagrin of NASA and Morton Thiokol’s management. He then refused to go along with the cover-up after the accident in which the cold temperature effect on the integrity of SRB O-ring seals was later cited as the principal cause of the accident. His career survived various attempts to besmirch his career after his honesty. We salute him and give our condolences to his family and friends.
SRB Engineer Allan McDonald. Courtesy: Wikipedia
While the Heavyweight class is the most famous one in boxing, for many of the sport’s aficionados it is the Middleweight division that has the best blend of power and speed. As such, it is sad to mark the passing of “Marvelous” Martin Hagler who has died at the age of 66. Hagler dominated Middle-weight boxing during the 1980s. He was undisputed world middleweight champion from 1980 to 1987 when he finally lost his crown to Sugar Ray Leonard. Hagler is rated as one of the best boxers ever to take to the ring and we give our salute to him and our condolences to his family and friends.
Marvelous Marvin Hagler (right) meets US President Ronald Reagan (left) in 1986. Courtesy: Wikipedia
On the subject of sport, we also mark the passing of the irrepressible Formula One motorracing commentator Murray Walker who dominated BBC and later ITV commentary on the sport from the late 1970s until his retirement in the 2000s. Walker was a British Army officer and Sherman tank driver during the latter parts of World War II and saw action in Northern Germany. After a brief career as motorcycle racer followed by one in advertising, Walker’s sideline as a motorsports commentator eventually took over while he was in his sixties when the BBC decided to cover all Formula One races using satellite-relayed television coverage.
We give our salute to Murray Walker and our condolences to his family and friends.
We salute Sabine Schmitz and give our condolences to her family and friends.
We give our salute to actor Yaphet Kotto. He gained fame as the not-very-nice drug dealing villain and voodoo/fortune telling fan “Dr. Kananga/Mr. Big” in the James Bond film Live and Let Die (1973).
Space fans will also remember him coming to a grizzly end in the space science fiction horror/jeopardy movie Alien (1979). We salute him and give our condolences to his family and friends.
Late in life George Segal used his comedic wit and Jewish heritage to play the “Pops” character in the long running 1980s set TV sitcom series The Goldbergs. We give our salute to George Segal and our condolences to his family and friends.
Finally, we end on a space note as we record the passing of former NASA Flight Director Glynn Lunney. While Flight Director Gene Kranz gets the recognition for his “failure is not an option” drive in the Apollo 13 disaster in 1970, actually it was Lunney who was Flight Director of the “Black Team Shift” who had to make some of key decisions as he took over the shift from Kranz’s White Team an hour after the service module explosion. Actually, both Kranz and Lunney and were present in mission control at the time of the explosion and used their joint expertise to make the key decision not to go for a direct engine thrust return which may have caused a second explosion.
With the command module being powered down, Lunney presided over the sequential powering up of the Apollo 13 lunar module and transferring key guidance data to it from the command module before the latter was fully shut down. In effect, by getting this right, Lunney and his White team saved the crew. We salute Glynn Lunney for this and for his services to other NASA missions. We give our condolences to his family and friends.
Standing at the flight director’s console, slightly in front is Glynn Lunney on 18 July 1966. Courtesy: NASA
Post script: We also belatedly note the passing of aerospaceexecutive Chuck Lauer who was a co-founder and Vice president of Business Development for Rocketplane Kistler Inc. and who was a constant at the various space shows and conferences on the calendar. We give our condolences to his family and friends.
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