Alton Gold Keel Jr. (born September 15, 1943) is an American engineer, diplomat, and businessman. Keel attended the University of Virginia, where he earned a bachelor of science in aerospace engineering in 1966 and a Ph.D. in 1970. He performed weapons research at the Naval Surface Weapons Center, and then joined the staff of the United States Senate, where he was a Congressional science fellow (1976–78) and a staff member of the Senate Armed Services Committee (1978–81). He then served as Assistant Secretary of the Air Force (Research, Development, and Logistics) (1981–82) and Associate Director of the Office of Management and Budget (1982–86). In 1986, he was appointed Executive Director of the Rogers Commission that investigated the Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster.