Former Director of the Alabama NASA Center During the Challenger Space Shuttle Explosion Dies at 102

US space shuttle Challenger lifts off 28 January 1986 from a launch pad at Kennedy Space Center, 72 seconds before its explosion killing it crew of seven. Challenger was 72 seconds into its flight, travelling at nearly 2,000 mph at a height of ten miles, when it was suddenly envelope in a red, orange and white fireball as thousands of tons of liquid hydrogen and oxygen fuel exploded. Bob Pearson/AFP via Getty Images

William Ray Lucas, who led the NASA facility that shouldered much of the blame for the 1986 explosion of the space shuttle Challenger, has died. Lucas was 102.

Lucas died Monday at his home in Huntsville, Alabama, according to an obituary published Friday by Laughlin Service Funeral Home in Huntsville. A funeral service has been set for March 1 on what would have been his 103rd birthday, funeral director Bryan Peek said Saturday.