So he came back. Now, you have to realize that al shepard was the ultimate politician. Very well respected, first flight he did, so he talked nasa into giving him talked them into giving him the very next flight, which was apollo 13. After he started working 13 and i was getting my crew together for 14, i think that the nasa hierarchy had second thoughts. They said, look, al has been grounded for eight or nine years, and youre going to give him the very next flight . He only made a 15 minute suborbital flight . Lets get serious about this thing. So deke said, okay, ill slip him one. So one day when i was training for 14, deke came in and said, jim, how would you like to take 13 and well give shepard 14 . I was delighted. I said, yes. I mean, you know, i was backup on 11. And im all set to go. I mean, you know, i need the training, i need to know the experiments and things like that. But im ready. So thats how it came to pass. Can you put to bed or add to the story that one hears that y
When you were a little kid. You saw a rocket go off and said i want to do that. Is it that simple or that complex . I was interested in rockets in astronomy long before people get spell rocket. I was interested in it way back in high school. I went to try to build some rockets. I wanted to become a rocket engineer, as a matter of fact. Worked at the rocket society. I wanted to become a rocket engineer but essentially they said you have to go to mit or to caltech. I cannot afford either. So i took a secondary goal. I got an rotc appointment to wisconsin. From there i went to the Naval Academy. I got to the flight training. I became a naval air aviator. In 1958, nasa was formed and they were looking for astronauts. I was one of the original 110 people who were selected. Let me go back to the Naval Academy . That is right. This was right after world war ii. I got down to preflight. My mother, when i was at the university of wisconsin, told me to apply to the Naval Academy. 7z3 vi did it,
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