General Donald Joseph Kutyna (/kəˈtinə/;[1] born December 6, 1933) is a retired United States Air Force officer.

Kutyna attended the University of Iowa for two years and was appointed to the United States Military Academy, graduating with a Bachelor of Science degree in the Class of 1957.

Upon completing pilot training at Vance Air Force Base, Oklahoma, in September 1958, Kutyna was assigned to the 33rd Bombardment Squadron at March Air Force Base, California, serving as a B-47 combat crew commander until June 1963.

In June 1965, Kutyna graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a Master of Science degree in aeronautics and astronautics.

After graduation in July 1976, he transferred to Electronic Systems Division, Hanscom Air Force Base, Massachusetts, with duty as assistant deputy for international programs.

In June 1984 Kutyna became director of space systems and command, control and communications, Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff, Research, Development and Acquisition, at Air Force headquarters.

He was particularly critical of NASA's decision to allow the shuttle to keep flying despite knowledge of the catastrophic O-ring flaw that ultimately led to the disaster.

While serving, he befriended fellow panelist Richard Feynman, who later described their partnership in his humorous memoir What Do You Care What Other People Think?.

That inspired Feynman, who discovered the truth about O-ring weakness: they lack elasticity when at or below a temperature of 32 °F (0 °C) degrees, such as the morning of the accident.

Feynman knew an astronaut had given Kutyna the crucial piece of information that led to his O-Ring insight; Kutyna later revealed that it was Sally Ride, a fellow member of the investigation commission but still a NASA employee at the time: One day [early in the investigation] Sally Ride and I were walking together.

She figured she could trust me to give me that piece of paper and not implicate her or the people at NASA who gave it to her, because they could all get fired.

General Kutyna's forces conducted missile warning, space surveillance and satellite control operations at 46 locations around the world.

{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) This article incorporates public domain material from GENERAL DONALD J. KUTYNA.