Jean kranz had a prolific career as a nasa flight and Missions Operation director. He was acting flight director when the apollo 11 astronauts landed on the moon, and as lead flight director of the apollo 13 mission, he had a significant role in guiding three astronauts back to earth after an explosion on the spacecraft. This is part one of a oral history interview landing flight director, werent you. You were in charge of that. You took part in the whole thing. lets go over apollo n unidentified speaker 11. A big project. Theres many things that stand out. A person says where were you when . I sure had an awful lot of great breaks in my life. I mean, whether they be in college, whether they be in flying airplanes, but one of the ones that i remember that is related to apollo 11 in a very direct fashion is the day i got the assignment to do the landing phase. Cliff charlesworth was the lead flight director and one of the responsibilities of the lead flight director is to identify which
11, and what a thing to go back over, thats a big project. The theres many things that stand out, a person says, where were you when . I had sure had an awful lot of great breaks in my life, i mean, whether they be in college, whether they be in flying airplanes, but one of the ones that i remember that is related to apollo 11, in a very direct fashion was the day that i got the assignment to do the landing phase. Cliff charlesworth was the lead flight director and one of the responsibilities of the lead flight director is to identify which flight director is going to cover which phase of the mission. The and moving in there, this was the First Mission where in apollo now, where lonnie, charlesworth and myself, who had been flight deck or thes on gemini, were actually coming back together again. So, you had probably the three most experienced people at the console and it was a question f of, who is going to get to do what . The and lonnie had been to the moon a couple times. Charleswor
Stand out. Where were you when . I had an awful lot of great brakes related to apollo 11. It was the day i got the assignment to do the landing phase. One of the responsibilities of the lead flight director is to identify which flight director is going to cover which phase of the mission. Im moving in their, we would have been flight directors on gemini and are actually coming back together again. You had probably the three most experienced people at the consult and it was a question of who was going to get to do what. Had been to the moon a couple of times. I had the lunar module experience. So you had no particular driver that says this person ought to be doing this phase of the mission. The division chief at the time had been really on top of us to nail down who is going to do what, until finally after the apollo 9 mission we all managed to get together and charles had to make the calls. I called him and said cliff, weve got to make a decision on which flight directors going to cove
Stand out to you. When a person says, where were you when . An awful lot of great breaks in my life. But the ones related to apollo 11 was the day that i got the assignment to do the landing phase. Cliff charlesworth was the lead flight director. Responsibilities of the lead flight director is to identify which flight director is going to cover which phase of the mission. And im moving in. This was the First Mission where, in apollo, where charlesworth and myself were actually coming back together again. You had probably the three most experienced people at the consul. It was a question of who is going to get to do what . He had been to the moon a couple times. And i had the lunar module experience. You had no particular driver that says this person ought to be doing this phase of the mission. I was division chief at that time. Really on top of this, but nailed down who was going to do what. Think theres any question. Everybody wanted to do something for the first time. The beauty of t
This interview is from nasas oral history program. Apollo 11. You were the Lunar Landing flight director. You were in charge of that. But you also took part in the whole thing, didnt you . Yes. Lets go back over apollo 11. What a thing to go over. That is a big project. There are many things that stand out to you. When a person says, where were you when . I had sure had an awful lot of great breaks in my life. Whether they be in college, whether they be in flying airplanes. But one of the ones i remember that was related to apollo 11 in a very direct fashion was the day that i got the assignment to do the landing phase. Cliff charlesworth was the lead flight director. And one of the responsibilities of the lead flight director is to identify which flight director is going to cover which phase of the mission. And im moving in. This was the First Mission where, in apollo, where charlesworth and myself were actually coming back together again. So, you had probably the three most experienc