Shuttle Launch Figure Plans Early Retirement

Jerald E. Mason, the Morton Thiokol vice president who told a fellow executive to “take off your engineering hat and put on your management hat” to end an emotional debate over whether to delay the launching of the space shuttle Challenger, announced Monday that he plans to retire early.

Mason, 59, was senior vice president in charge of the Utah rocket manufacturing facility the night of Jan. 27 when he presided over a stormy launch-eve meeting at which company engineers expressed alarm about effects of subfreezing temperatures on rubbery booster rocket seals.

Overruled Engineers

Four vice presidents, including Mason, voted to overrule the engineers. Failure of those troublesome seals is believed responsible for the explosion that killed seven Challenger crew members the next morning.

The company’s space division “must be freed as much as possible of the damaging effects of the shuttle accident,” Mason said in a memo to the management staff in Brigham City, Utah. “My departure should help to put aside much of the controversy and uncertainty that exists and allow everyone to focus on the job to be done.” He said he had always acted with integrity and that he was leaving June 30 in “the best interest of . . . the company,” ending 26 years with Morton Thiokol.

In testimony before the presidential commission investigating the disaster, Mason denied that his comment was intended to pressure the management team into supporting a launching recommendation over engineering objections. Six weeks after the disaster, Mason was replaced as manager of the shuttle rocket program and, along with two of the other vice presidents, given new duties with reduced authority and responsibility.

His retirement decision comes three days after Allan J. McDonald--one of the engineers who fought to postpone the launching and who became a national figure in subsequent public appearances before the Challenger investigating commission--was offered the key job as head of the company’s rocket redesign team.

Announcement Due Today

McDonald had not formally accepted the assignment, but an announcement dealing with the pending McDonald assignment and Mason’s early retirement--as well as other possible high-level reassignments--was expected today from officials at Thiokol headquarters in Chicago.

Meanwhile, in Washington, President Reagan reportedly has decided to name William R. Graham as White House science adviser. Graham had been acting administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration for 10 days when the shuttle exploded. He has been deputy head of the space agency since James C. Fletcher was appointed administrator.