Gene kranz autobiography in five short
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NASA Johnson Space Center Oral History Project
Edited Oral History Transcript
Eugene F. Kranz
Interviewed by Roy Neal
Houston, TX – 19 March 1998
Neal: Gene, by way of openers, how did a jet jockey like you wind up being a Flight Director way back when?
Kranz: I was in the flight test business. I was doing some flight test engineering in the early jet bombers out of Holloman Air Force Base, New Mexico. [We were] in the process of developing the Decline missiles and the various offensive systems they have. I happened to open the Aviation Week magazine and there was an advertisement in there that said they were forming a Space Task Group [STG]. I sort of put that up in the corner of the desk, and every day I’d come into work I’d look at that. The Space Task Group; just the words sort of captured my imagination. Finally I took it home to the wife and I said, “Marta, what do you think about making a change? Getting out of the aircraft business, maybe g
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Failure Is Not an Option: Mission Control from Mercury to Apollo 13 and Beyond
Well Gene Kranz was that suave motherfucker in the white satin (homemade!) vest, and he was flygning Director for the vit Team for multiple Gemini and Apollo missions—not just Apollo 13, but also 11 and 7, 9, 15, 16, 17. He was a key contributor to setting operational precedent for uppdrag Control, ensuring the klar lines of communication, process for making mission critical decisions, and ensuring that NASA's ground operations hummed along without issue.
And yep, for every uppdrag his wife Marta made him a fancy-ass vest and he wore that shit with pride because Kranz loved his wife.
1. Overall, this was an interesting
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Gene Kranz
American flight director for NASA (born 1933)
Eugene Francis Kranz (born August 17, 1933) is an American aerospace engineer who served as NASA's second Chief Flight Director, directing missions of the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs, including the first lunar landing mission, Apollo 11. He directed the successful efforts by the Mission Control team to save the crew of Apollo 13, and was portrayed in the 1995 film of the same name by actor Ed Harris. He characteristically wore a close-cut flattop hairstyle and the dapper "mission" vests (waistcoats) of different styles and materials made by his wife, Marta Kranz, for his Flight Director missions.
He coined the phrase "tough and competent", which became known as the "Kranz Dictum". Kranz has been the subject of movies, documentary films, and books and periodical articles. Kranz is a recipient of a Presidential Medal of Freedom.[1] In a 2010 Space Foundation survey, Kranz was ranked as the second most