Bob Ebeling spent three decades filled with guilt over not stopping the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger, but found relief in the weeks before his death.
Ebeling’s daughter Leslie Serna told The Associated Press that her father died Monday at the age of 89 in Brigham City, Utah.
She said he was finally able to forgive himself thanks to the hundreds of supportive phone calls and letters he received following a January NPR story about the 30th anniversary of the Challenger disaster. She said they tried to ease Ebeling’s guilt, and he was soon able to let go.
“It was like the world gave him permission, they said, ‘OK, you did everything you could possibly do, you’re a good person,'” Serna said.
Ebeling was a booster rocket engineer at NASA contractor Morton Thiokol in 1986. He and a handful of his colleagues worried that the cold temperatures the night before the Challenger was set to launch would harm the rubber O-ring seals and allow burning rocket fuel to leak out of booster joints, NPR reported (http://n.pr/1ReHbmR).
Ebeling warned his boss the morning before the launch of the dangers that could face the Challenger if it was sent into space that day. He collected data that illustrated the risks and spent hours arguing to postpone sending it and its seven astronauts into space.
Serna said she also worked for NASA at the time and would carpool to work with him. The morning of the launch, Ebeling picked her up and beat his hand on the dashboard, angry he had not convinced NASA to postpone the launch.
Serna said his guilt reached such intense levels that he told her the only way he could have gotten them to postpone the flight was if he had brought a gun to work and held them hostage.
She and her father watched live video of the Challenger clearing the launch pad on January 28. She said Ebeling leaned over to her and said, “It’s not over.” About 20 seconds later the shuttle exploded.
“My dad just started shaking and weeping,” she said.
After about two decades working for NASA, Ebeling retired a few months after the disaster.
He soon shifted his focus to conservation work. Serna said he and his wife devoted hundreds of hours to rebuilding a bird refuge located near him.
“It was his way of trying to make things right,” she said.
A few years later he was awarded a prestigious award by then President George H.W. Bush for his conservation work.
Serna described her father as a very generous man with a great sense of humor.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.
Another GOOD MAN, ignored by educated idiots with NO common sense.
This man didn’t all he could to stop these men from sending the challenger up that day.the ones that didn’t not lesson to him should feel guilty.what a difisting day that was.condolences to his family.
This man didn’t all he could to stop these men from sending the challenger up that day.the ones that didn’t not lesson to him should feel guilty.what a difisting day that was.condolences to his family.
Nothing happened to the bureaucrat who would not listen to the engineer?? We don’t even know his name.
The warnings about what would happen if Obamacare went through, were out there for years. And that’s happening too, just as predicted. People just don’t listen. As my late mother used to say, People only hear what they WANT to hear.
So sad. He tried his utmost to stop it. Even I, a mere Jane Doe and not an engineer, who lives in Florida and watched the Challenger lift off and explode that sad morning, remember saying prior that the shuttle should not be launched because it was so very cold that morning. Judith Resnick was a friend-of-a-friend of mine. Rest in Peace.
The launch was required by the White House. President Reagan was to make the State of the Union speech that night to congress and he had memorized a reference to the shuttle flying over the earth and because of his state of mind it would have been impossible to learn a variation of the speech without the shuttle reference.
“Forgive them Father for they know not what they do”. Jesus the Palestinian on the Cross uttering the last truth about Shit for Brains Mankind! L’Crime!!!
Our great and noble engineer, may your soul rest in peace. You did your best then to save those fine souls who lost their lives in that day, but your colleagues refused to listen to you. May Fod not allow us to learn the hard way before taking correction.
I understand how he feels. Sometimes you can’t do anything and then they launch another flight the same time of year…Columbia. When will they ever learn?
As is indicated , the ony way that he could have stoped the launch was with a gun at the engineering office absolves I’m of all the responsibility in the accident. THE name of the person that made the decision has been named several times in the past, andhe ws demoted to a small job in Alabama ( CullmaN) AND VERY SLOWLY WAS REMOVED FROM THE PROGRAM. I am reasonably sure the tortures of the dammed followed him for the rest of his life, even tho this person also had all kinds of guilt when there was o reason because HE was not the final decision on the flight.