Eugene F. Kranz

The incredible ingenuity and boldness of aviation pioneers during the 1960's produced the foundations, and indeed the greatest achievements, of U.S. manned spaceflight. These trailblazers included not only the astronauts who flew the missions but also the engineers of NASA's Flight Control who were responsible for mission planning and execution. One of these engineers, Eugene F. "Gene" Kranz, entered the space agency at the beginning of the decade and was immediately thrust into a new world where he would both learn and model the principles of morale, discipline, tough, and competent. In doing so, he would display responsive leadership to exceed a President's challenge, to exemplify mentors' advice, to enable controllers' development, and to ensure crises' resolution.Bringing fighter pilot and flight test engineer experience with him, Gene Kranz's contributions to the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo space programs proved to be immeasurable. With mission setbacks early in Mercury, he began fostering morale and teamwork among the controllers with whom he served. In the eyes and words of Kranz, lessons learned before and after Gemini 3 taught the importance of discipline in the Mission Control ranks. Finally, he delivered his tough and competent speech to the Flight Operations Division after the tragic Apollo 1 fire, stressing the importance of these principles for attaining the lunar prize. With equally intense optimism and organization, Gene Kranz contributed to notable milestones of space exploration that will be remembered forever. This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.