Thiokol Aide Denies Pair Were Punished

An executive of Morton Thiokol Inc. told the chairman of the Senate’s space subcommittee Tuesday that the company had no intention of punishment when it transferred two aerospace engineers who opposed the fatal launch of the space shuttle Challenger last January.

The disclosure was made by Ed Garrison, president of Morton Thiokol’s aerospace group, in a private meeting with Sen. Slade Gorton (R-Wash.) and Sen. Donald W. Riegle Jr. (D-Mich.), the chairman and ranking member of the Commerce, Science and Transportation subcommittee on space and technology.

Garrison strongly denied that the National Aeronautics and Space Administration had anything to do with the engineers’ change of assignments.

Senator’s Reservations

However, the two senators said they continued to have reservations about Morton Thiokol management’s handling of the two engineers and indicated that the issue may be taken up again after the presidential commission investigating the Challenger disaster makes its final report, which is due June 6.

“I do have some real reservations about its management decisions on this point,” Gorton said after the session, held in his office.

Although the company official had denied that NASA had anything to do with the transfer of Allan McDonald and Roger Boisjoly after they testified before the Challenger investigating commission, Riegle said, it was clear that the firm is now “very sensitive about its working relationship with NASA” and wants no “friction points” between it and the government.

Morton Thiokol, which built the shuttle system’s solid rocket boosters, is working with NASA to redesign a faulty rocket joint blamed for the Jan. 28 tragedy.

Argued Against Launch

McDonald and Boisjoly were among working-level Thiokol engineers who argued against the launch the night before the accident, contending that it was unsafe because no earlier launch had taken place in temperatures as low as those being experienced at the Kennedy Space Center.

They later recounted the debate between NASA and company officials to accident investigators.

When the engineers appeared before the presidential commission a second time early this month, they disclosed that they had been moved to jobs where they no longer have contact with the space agency and said they considered the move to be punishment.

The action was protested in a letter by more than 30 Democratic senators and resulted in an official investigation by NASA’s inspector general--in addition to the possibility of another probe by the Senate space subcommittee.

Upset by Interview

Gorton and Riegle said Tuesday that they were particularly upset by a Wall Street Journal interview last week in which Morton Thiokol’s chairman was quoted as saying: “Once this commission issues its report and this thing is closed, it’s going to be a different situation because people are paid to do productive work for our company and not to wander around the country gossiping with people.”

Gorton said he would be “extremely concerned” if the remarks by company Chairman Charles S. Locke in fact indicated an intention to take action against McDonald and Boisjoly after the investigation is closed.

In the meeting with Garrison Tuesday, he said, there was no indication that the company regarded McDonald and Boisjoly as “anything but highly valued employes.”

Besides the Garrison meeting with Gorton and Riegle, Morton Thiokol sent other representatives to talk privately with senators who signed the letter criticizing the company last week.

The message delivered by company representatives John Haddow and Jim Robertson, Senate aides said, was basically the same as Garrison delivered--that Morton Thiokol had not intended the transfer of the engineers as punishment for their cooperation in the shuttle accident investigation.