C. Gordon Fullerton waited years for his chance to go into space but less than six minutes after the space shuttle Challenger took off in 1985, he was starting to rethink it.
One of the Challenger's three main engines suddenly shut down and Fullerton, the mission's commander, didn't know whether the others would follow.
"Absolutely, with no warning — kapow! — there was an immediate drop in acceleration," he later told reporters. "The red light came on, and there we were."
Fullerton and pilot Roy Bridges immediately dumped a load of surplus fuel, worked the two remaining engines harder, and maneuvered the Challenger into orbit just 45 miles lower than planned. The mission proceeded for its scheduled eight days.
"He was just the guy you wanted on your team," said Alan Brown, a spokesman for NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base. "He handled high-pressure, high-tension situations very well. He was never someone you would see getting glandular about things."
Fullerton died Wednesday from complications after a severe stroke in 2009, NASA said. He was 76 and lived in a Lancaster long-term care facility.
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