Gene Kranz

Eugene F. "Gene" Kranz (17 August, 1933–) is a retired NASA flight director and manager. Kranz, who served as a flight director during Project Gemini and Project Apollo, is best known for his trademark buzz-cut hairstyle and the wearing of white vests of different styles and materials whenever his "White Team" was on duty during missions, but was best known for his role in saving the crew of Apollo 13.

NASA Career

After completing the research tests out at Holloman Air Force Base, Kranz left McDonnell-Douglas and joined the NASA Space Task Group, then at its Langley Research Center in Virginia. Upon joining NASA, he was assigned, by legendary flight director Christopher C. Kraft as a Mission Control Procedures officer for the unmanned Mercury 1 test (dubbed in Kranz' autobiography as the "Four-Inch Flight").

Related Topics:
Langley Research Center - Virginia - Christopher C. Kraft - Mission Control - Mercury 1

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As Procedures Officers, Kranz was put in charge of integrating Mercury Control with the Launch Control Team at Cape Canaveral, Florida, writing up the "Go/NoGo" procedures that allowed missions to continue as planned or be aborted, along with serving as a sort of switchboard operator between the control center at Cape Canaveral and the agency's 14 tracking stations and 2 tracking ships (via Teletype) located across the globe. Kranz performed this role for all unmanned and manned Mercury flights, including the trailblazing Mercury 3 and Mercury Atlas 6 flights.

Related Topics:
Cape Canaveral, Florida - Teletype - Mercury 3 - Mercury Atlas 6

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After Mercury 6, he was promoted to assistant flight director for Flight Director Kraft for the Mercury 7 flight of astronaut Scott Carpenter in October, 1962. He continued in this role for the remaining two Mercury flights and the first three Gemini flights. With the upcoming Gemini flights, he was promoted to flight director and served his first shift, the so-called "operations shift," for the Gemini 4 mission in 1965, the first U.S. EVA and 4-day flight. After Gemini, he served as flight director for Apollos 7 and 9, but it was his role as flight director for Apollo 11, that his team guided the LM Eagle on the moon on July 20, 1969.

Related Topics:
Mercury 7 - Scott Carpenter - Gemini 4 - Apollo 11

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Kranz is perhaps best known for his role as lead flight director during the Apollo 13 space mission. Kranz's team was on duty when the Apollo 13 Service Module exploded and dealt with the initial hours of the unfolding accident. His "White Team," dubbed the "Tiger Team" by the press, set the parameters for the consumption of spacecraft consumables (oxygen, electricity, and water), controlled the three course-correction burns during the Trans-Earth trajectory, as well as the power-up procedures that allowed the astronauts to use the Command Module for the trip home. He, his team, as well as the astronauts received the Presidential Medal of Freedom for their heroic roles.

Related Topics:
Apollo 13 - Service Module - Presidential Medal of Freedom

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Kranz would continue as flight director until Apollo 17, and then was promoted to Deputy Director of NASA Mission Operations in 1974, becoming its director in 1983. He retired in 1994 after the successful Space Shuttle flight that repaired the optically flawed Hubble Space Telescope in 1993. In addition to writing "Failure Is Not An Option," which was adapted for cable TV for The History Channel in 2004, he also flies an acrobatic airplane and serves as a flight engineer for a restored B-17 Flying Fortress. He and his wife Marta, along with their six children (1 boy and 5 girls) and several grandchildren, still reside in Texas.

Related Topics:
Apollo 17 - Space Shuttle - Hubble Space Telescope - The History Channel

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