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
The First Mission where in apollo now, where we had been flight directors on gemini, we were coming back together again. So you had probably the three most experienced people at the counsel, and it was a question of who was going to get to do what. Lonnie had been to the moon a couple times. Charlesworth had launched saturns. I had the lunar module experience. You had no driver that said this person ought to be doing this phase of the mission. I was division chief at that time and kraft 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 charlesworth as lead had to make the calls. I called him and said cliff, we got to make a decision on which flight director is going to cover which phase of the mission. This is probably the most anticlimactic meeting ive ever had in my life. He looked me straight in the face, and he said, well, im going to launch it, and im going to do the eva. So that only leav
Apollo 11 in a very direct fashion was the day that i got the assignment to do the landing phase. Cliff charles worth was the lead flight director. 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 moving in there, this was the First Mission where in apollo now, where we had been flight directors on gemini, we were coming back together again. So you had probably the three most experienced people at the koi council, and it was a question of who was going to get to do what. Lonnie had been to the moon a couple times. Cha charl charlesworth had launched saturns. I had lunar experience. You had no driver that said this person ought to be doing this phase of the mission. I was division chief at that time and kraft 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 charlesworth as lead had to make the calls. I
You also took part in the whole thing. Lets go back over apollo 11, what a thing to go back over, big project. There were many things that stand out, the person says, where were you when . I head sure had an awful lot of great rakes in my life. I mean, whether they were in college, flying airplanes, or a lot of the ones i remember related to apollo 11 in a direct fashion for the day that i got the assignment and cliff was the lead flight director. One of their responsibilitys of the lead flight director is to identify which flight director is going to cover which phase of the mission. And, moving in there, this is the First Mission where, in apollo now were lonnie, charlesworth and myself and we had been flight directors on gemini, were actually coming back together again. So, you had probably the three most experienced people at the consul and, it was a question of who was going to get to do what. And, lonnie had been to them in a couple times, charlesworth has launched saturn and i h
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