Military figure. Lieutenant General of the United States Air Force and Director of NASA's civilian-run Kennedy Space Center from 1987 to 1992. Most noted for getting the shuttle program reinstated by rebuilding the morale of the work force and public confidence, after the explosion of the Challenger January 28, 1986. The shuttle orbiter program was shutdown after it left all seven crew members dead in the explosion. Later he would oversee the first shuttle launching after the disaster. Born the son of an electrical contractor and a school teacher he graduated from Gulf Coast Military Academy in Mississippi in 1949. He received his commission through the Reserve Officer Training Corps, and entered the regular air force in 1952. The same year he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering from Gulf Alabama Polytechnic Institute at Auburn University. His first military assignment was with the Air Force Logistics Command at Robins Air Force Base in Georgia. He also earned a master's degree in nuclear engineering from the Air Force Institute of Technology at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio in 1955, majoring in weapons technology. He was assigned to the Satellite Control Facility in Sunnyvale, California in May of 1959. In the 1960's, serving as top aide to Gen. Bernard Schriever he became a pioneer of the American military's unmanned space program, playing a key role in getting the first reconnaissance satellites into space. In the 1970s, McCartney became program director for a project that established the ability of naval vessels and airplanes to communicate by satellite. In the early 1980s he was involved in developing the MX intercontinental ballistic missile, known as the Peacekeeper. In 1983 he was promoted to lieutenant general and named commander of the Air Force Space Division, a highly classified command. He resigned his commission December 31, 1991. During his tenure, he received countless commendations and medals. The news of his death appeared in newspapers and on television across the United States and around the world.