Bob Ebeling (89) spent a third of his life consumed with guilt about the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger. But at the end of his life, his family says, he was finally able to find peace.
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Ebeling was one of five booster rocket engineers at NASA contractor Morton Thiokol who tried to stop the 1986 Challenger launch. They worried that cold temperatures overnight — the forecast said 18 degrees — would stiffen the rubber O-ring seals that prevent burning rocket fuel from leaking out of booster joints.
"We all knew if the seals failed, the shuttle would blow up," said engineer Roger Boisjoly in a 1986 interview with NPR's Daniel Zwerdling.
Ebeling was the first to sound the alarm the morning before the Challenger launch. He called his boss, Allan McDonald, who was Thiokol's representative at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Bob Ebeling was an engineer who worked for Morton Thiokol, the company that designed and built the solid rocket boosters for NASA's space shuttle program. He was part of the team responsible for analyzing the performance of the boosters and ensuring their safety.
Bob Ebeling and other engineers at Morton Thiokol expressed concerns about the safety of the solid rocket boosters prior to the Challenger launch. They recommended delaying the launch due to concerns about the O-ring seals, which ultimately failed and caused the disaster. Ebeling even famously said, "I wouldn't launch a paper rocket in weather like this."
After the Challenger disaster, a commission investigated and determined that the O-ring failure was the primary cause. Bob Ebeling felt responsible because he and other engineers had expressed their concerns and recommendations to delay the launch, but their concerns were not taken seriously.
Yes, Bob Ebeling continued to work for Morton Thiokol and the space shuttle program after the Challenger disaster. He was part of the team that helped redesign the solid rocket boosters to prevent future O-ring failures. He also became an advocate for engineering ethics and safety in the aerospace industry.
Bob Ebeling's legacy is that of a dedicated engineer who tried to prevent a disaster and then worked tirelessly to improve safety in the aerospace industry. He also served as a reminder of the importance of listening to and valuing the concerns of engineers and other experts in decision-making processes.