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McDonald, Linda and Allan J. (NASA Challenger disaster archives)
2016.002.s.r
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Table of contents
Contributing Institution:
Frank Mt. Pleasant Library of Special Collections and Archives, Leatherby Libraries
Title: Linda and Allan J. McDonald NASA Challenger disaster archives
source:
McDonald, Allan J., Mr.
source:
McDonald, Linda Z., Mrs.
Identifier/Call Number: 2016.002.s.r
Physical Description:
24 Linear Feet
25 containers total (20 cartons, 3 letter-sized document boxes, and 2 custom boxes containing large format photographs, awards
and certificates)
Physical Description:
6.34 gb
5 video files, MP4
Date (inclusive): 1955-2020
Date (bulk): 1984-1996
Abstract: This collection contains original and photocopied materials from Allan James McDonald (1937-2021), spanning from 1955 to 2020,
that pertain to his career as an engineer and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Space Shuttle Challenger
disaster.
Condition Description: Some materials from accession [2016-002-s] have water damage that has faded or washed out ink, rusted metal fasteners and
paper, and damaged some of the wood-backed awards. Inactive mold from this water damage was found on several items that were
cleaned or photocopied and removed. See series 2, series 3, and series 4 processing notes for specific folders affected.
Physical Location: Leatherby Libraries, Special Collections
Language of Material:
English
.
Container: 1988_McDonald_Challenger_Disaster-2016.002.s.r
This collection is open for research.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Gift of Allan J. McDonald and Linda Z. McDonald in 2016. Subsequent donations were made in 2019 by Allan and Linda and in
2021 by Linda.
This collection is arranged by material type into seven series:
- Series 1, Engineering and rocket design files, 1955-1996, bulk: 1983-1988
- Series 2, Presidential Commission and congressional hearings on the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster, 1986-1987
- Series 3, Litigation and deposition files, 1980s, bulk: 1986-1988
- Series 4, Post-Challenger rocket redesign files, 1986-2016, bulk: 1986-1996
- Series 5, VHS tapes and CDs, 1986-2007, bulk: 1986-1993
- Series 6, Awards, certificates, and realia, 1962-2007, bulk: 1980s
- Series 7, Book revisions and related correspondence, 1988-2020
Each series' folders are predominantly arranged in chronological order.
Allan J. McDonald (1937-2021) was a rocket engineer, speaker, and author who was involved with the development of the NASA
Space Shuttle's solid rocket motor.
McDonald was born in Wyoming and raised in Montana. He graduated from Billings Senior High School in 1955, attended Eastern
Montana College of Education (now Montana State University, Billings) on a scholarship, and received his bachelor's degree
in chemical engineering with honors from Montana State University, Bozeman in 1959. He also received his master's of Engineering
Administration from the University of Utah in 1965.
In 1959, McDonald began working as a rocket engineer for Thiokol (later Morton Thiokol, Inc. or MTI) in Utah. The company
had just received a United States (U.S.) Department of Defense contract to develop solid rockets for the U.S. Air Force and
was later contracted to develop NASA's Space Shuttle solid rocket motor in 1974. Solid rocket motors are part of the solid
rocket boosters. These contain solidified propellant, as opposed to liquid-based fuel.
NASA developed the Space Shuttle Program in the late 1960s and 1970s to establish a shuttle transport system made of reusable
rockets for launch into space and reusable orbiters for transport and returning passengers back to earth. Space Shuttle Challenger
was one of five shuttles that flew during the program that lasted from 1981 to 2011.
On February 3, 1986, President Ronald Reagan signed Executive Order 12546 to establish the "Presidential Commission on the
Space Shuttle Challenger Accident" to investigate the disaster that killed all seven astronauts during launch on January 28,
1986. Commission members were chairman William Rogers; astronauts Neil Armstrong (vice chairman), Brigadier General Charles
E. Yeager, and Dr. Sally Ride; Dr. Arthur Walker; Richard Feynman; Dr. Eugene Covert; Robert Hotz; David C. Acheson; and then
Major General Donald Kutyna. Allan McDonald provided witness testimony to the Commission because he was MTI's Director of
the Space Shuttle Solid Rocket Motor Project.
Although McDonald was demoted at MTI (later ATK Thiokol) for his testimony, Congress was able to get his job reinstated and
he became Vice President of Engineering Space Operations and Vice President of Advanced Programs and Technology. He was highly
involved in the redesign of the solid rocket motors that allowed Space Shuttle flight to resume in 1988. McDonald later retired
in 2001 after working at the company for 42 years.
During his career, McDonald spoke at several international engineering conferences regarding aerospace and rocket science
developments and he also received many honors and awards for his work. He visited several U.S. universities to speak about
the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster and engineering ethics. In 2009, McDonald published his perspective of the Space Shuttle
Challenger disaster in
Truth, Lies, and O-rings, which he coauthored with James R. Hansen.
McDonald was married for 57 years to his wife Linda, with whom he shared four children and several grandchildren.
Below is a list of acronyms used in this collection:
- AIAA – American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics
- ASRM – Advanced Solid Rocket Motor program
- IAF – International Astronautical Federation
- JANNAF – Joint-Army-Navy-NASA-Air Force
- JES – Joint Environment Simulator
- MSFC – Marshall Space Flight Center
- MTI – Morton Thiokol Inc., also known as Thiokol Corporation, Alliant Techsystems Inc. (ATK), and ATK Thiokol
- NASA – National Aeronautics and Space Administration
- NRC – National Research Council
- NSPE – National Society of Professional Engineers
- NSS – National Space Society
- PV – production verification motor
- RSRM – Redesigned Solid Rocket Motor program
- SAE – Society of Automobile Engineers
- SRB – solid rocket booster
- SRM – solid rocket motor
- SLS – Space Launch System
- STS – Space Transportation System, Space Shuttle
- STS-51L – Space Shuttle Challenger's last mission, 1986 January 28
- TPTA – transient pressure test article
- UEC – Utah Engineering Council
- VP – Vice President
[Item title / description; Box "n" / Folder "n"], Linda and Allan J. McDonald NASA Challenger disaster archives, (2016.002.s.r),
Frank Mt. Pleasant Library of Special Collections and Archives, Chapman University, CA. For the benefit of current and future
researchers, please cite any additional information about sources consulted in this collection, including permanent URLs,
item or folder descriptions, and box/folder locations.
Processed by Norm Lee in 2016 and updated by Wendy Gonaver in 2021. Biographical note written by Victoria Perez. Reprocessed
by Perez as of September 2023.
All materials in this collection dated prior to the 2009 printing of
Truth, Lies, and O-rings were used by Allan McDonald in his research and often as sources, such as newspaper clippings found in Series 4.
Accession [2016-002-s] materials contain duplicate copies of items that are inside different folders and boxes. Also, some
accession [2019-003-s] and accession [2021-012-s] materials are duplicates of items from the other accessions.
6 items and an inventory list of 7 items were found in accession [2016-002-s] carton 20 when staff added the 2019 and 2021
accruals. List contents are: "September 15, 2016 Additional Documents: 1A) STS-27R Pre-Launch and Countdown Documents (3 Documents);
2A) 37th AIAA Joint Propulsion Conference Flyer, July 8-11, 2001; 3A) Aerospace America Magazine article by Mark Salita on
Challenger and Columbia accidents, March 2004; 4A) AIAA Solid Rocket Technical Committee Certificate, 23-24 July 2008; 5A)
AIAA Liquid Rocket Propulsion Certificate, 26 July 2016; 6A) Visa-A-Card File Business Cards; 7A) Morton Thiokol News Composite
Directory by Network and by Date." Item 7A is in Series 5 with the VHS tapes. Photocopies of the list and the remaining 6
items were placed by archival staff in December 2022 and March 2023 into Series 4 (1A, 2A, 3A, 6A) and Series 6 (4A, 5A).
Many items in this collection are identified with a donor number taped to or written on an item. Most accession [2019-003-s]
items include "AM" with the number and have been listed with brackets. None of the accession [2021-012-s] items have these
numbers.
This resource follows NASA's preferred naming conventions listed online in the "Style Guide for NASA History Authors and Editors"
found in the Bibliography note. These include referring to a spacecraft as the "Space Shuttle Challenger" in roman text and
a mission as "STS-51L." The words "Space Shuttle" should be capitalized, such as in "Space Shuttle mission." Some exceptions
in this resource include retaining the collection's original title and the donor's usage of "pre-Challenger," "pre-51L" and
"post-Challenger" in reference to material from the years before and after the disaster.
Researchers will also find of interest this repository's Roger and Roberta Boisjoly NASA Challenger disaster collection (2010.017.r)
containing Roger's personal and engineering papers and the Mark Maier NASA Challenger disaster collection (2010.002.r). Both
collections contain extensive material on the Space Shuttle Challenger investigation.
This collection contains original and photocopied materials from Allan J. McDonald that span from 1955 to 2020 and pertain
to his career as an engineer and the NASA Space Shuttle Challenger disaster.
The collection includes McDonald's engineering files, publications and pre-Challenger solid rocket motor design files. In
addition, it contains Space Shuttle Challenger disaster-related notes, briefings and files; Presidential Commission and congressional
hearing documents; and litigation and deposition files. It also has McDonald's post-Challenger solid rocket motor redesign
files, newspaper clippings, correspondence, book revisions and book-related correspondence materials. It also includes VHS
tapes of the Space Shuttle Challenger hearings and news footage; CDs of book revisions and presentations; posters, awards,
certificates, plaques and realia honoring McDonald.
There are no restrictions on the use of this material except where previously copyrighted material is concerned. It is the
responsibility of the researcher to obtain all permissions.
Banks, Joseph. Chemical Propulsion Systems.
National Aeronautics and Space Administration. April 17, 2023. https://www1.grc.nasa.gov/research-and-engineering/chemical-propulsion-systems/.
Barry, Bill (NASA Chief Historian) and Stephen Garber (NASA Official). Style Guide for NASA History Authors and Editors.
National Aeronautics and Space Administration. February 23, 2018. https://history.nasa.gov/printFriendly/styleguide.html.
Dunbar, Brian and Jeanne Ryba. NASA Orbiter Fleet: Space Shuttle Overview: Discovery (OV-103).
National Aeronautics and Space Administration. April 12, 2013. https://www.nasa.gov/centers/kennedy/shuttleoperations/orbiters/discovery-info.html. Accessible via Wayback
Machine on https://web.archive.org/web/20230519045716/https://www.nasa.gov/centers/kennedy/shuttleoperations/orbiters/discovery-info.html.
Langer, Emily. "Allan McDonald, engineer and whistleblower in the Challenger disaster, dies at 83."
Washington Post, March 10, 2021. https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/allan-mcdonald-dead/2021/03/10/572bd0d6-81a3-11eb-ac37-4383f7709abe_story.html.
Leavitt's Mortuary and Aultorest Memorial Park. "Allan James McDonald: 1937-2021."
Legacy. March 12-March 13, 2021. https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/name/allan-mcdonald-obituary?id=4662623.
Loff, Sarah. Space Shuttle Era.
National Aeronautics and Space Administration. August 3, 2017. https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/flyout/index.html.
McDonald, Allan J., and James R. Hansen.
Truth, Lies, and O-rings: Inside the Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2009.
Presidential Commission.
Report to the President By the PRESIDENTIAL COMMISSION On the Space Shuttle Challenger Accident. National Aeronautics and Space Administration. June 6, 1986. https://sma.nasa.gov/SignificantIncidents/assets/rogers_commission_report.pdf.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Challenger (Spacecraft) -- Accidents
Engineering--History
Presidential Commission on the Space Shuttle Challenger Accident
Solid propellant rockets
United States. -- National Aeronautics and Space Administration
McDonald, Allan J., Mr.
McDonald, Linda Z., Mrs.