1. Eugene Francis Kranz was born on August 17,1933 and is an American aerospace engineer who served as NASA's second Chief Flight Director, directing missions of the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs, including the first lunar landing mission, Apollo 11.
Gene Kranz directed the successful efforts by the Mission Control team to save the crew of Apollo 13, and was portrayed in the 1995 film of the same name by actor Ed Harris.
Gene Kranz characteristically wore a close-cut flattop hairstyle and the dapper "mission" vests of different styles and materials made by his wife, Marta Kranz, for his Flight Director missions.
Gene Kranz coined the phrase "tough and competent", which became known as the "Kranz Dictum".
Gene Kranz is a recipient of a Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Gene Kranz was born August 17,1933, in Toledo, Ohio, and attended Central Catholic High School.
Gene Kranz grew up on a farm that overlooked the Willys-Overland Jeep production plant.
Gene Kranz was interested in space at a young age; in high school he wrote a thesis on the topic of a single-stage rocket to the Moon.
Gene Kranz graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Aeronautical Engineering from Saint Louis University's Parks College of Engineering, Aviation and Technology in 1954.
Gene Kranz received his commission as a second lieutenant in the US Air Force Reserve, completing pilot training at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas in 1955.
Shortly after receiving his wings, Gene Kranz married Marta Cadena, a daughter of Mexican immigrants who fled from Mexico during the Mexican Revolution.
Gene Kranz was sent to South Korea to fly the F-86 Sabre aircraft for patrol operations around the Korean DMZ.
Gene Kranz was discharged from the Air Force Reserve as a Captain in 1972.
Gene Kranz performed this role for all crewed and uncrewed Mercury flights, including the MR-3 and MA-6 flights, which put the first Americans into space and orbit respectively.
Gene Kranz continued in this role for the remaining two Mercury flights and the first three Gemini flights.
Gene Kranz was serving as Flight Director for Apollo 11 when the Lunar Module Eagle landed on the Moon on July 20,1969.
Gene Kranz was chosen to be one of the first flight directors to fly crewed Apollo missions.
Gene Kranz worked with the contractor, McDonnell-Douglas on the Mercury and Gemini project, but for Apollo there was a new contractor, Rockwell.
Gene Kranz describes Rockwell as new and unfamiliar with the space industry, as they were known for their aeronautical significance at the time.
Gene Kranz was assigned as a division chief for Apollo; his tasks included mission preparation, mission design, the writing of the procedures, and the development of the handbooks.
Gene Kranz explains that the Mission Control logo is an interesting one; he associates it with commitment, teamwork, discipline, morale, tough, competent, risk, and sacrifice.
Gene Kranz is perhaps best known for his role as lead flight director during NASA's Apollo 13 crewed Moon landing mission.
Gene Kranz's team was on duty when part of the Apollo 13 Service Module exploded and they dealt with the initial hours of the unfolding accident.
Gene Kranz continued as a Flight Director through Apollo 17, when he worked his last shift as a flight director overseeing the mission liftoff, and then was promoted to Deputy Director of NASA Mission Operations in 1974, becoming Director in 1983.
Gene Kranz was in Mission Control during the January 28,1986, loss of Space Shuttle Challenger on the STS-51-L launch.
Gene Kranz retired from NASA in 1994 after the successful STS-61 flight that repaired the optically flawed Hubble Space Telescope in 1993.
Post-retirement Gene Kranz became a flight engineer on a restored Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress, flying at air shows throughout the United States for six years.
Gene Kranz continues to give motivational speeches and talks about his experiences with the space programs.
Gene Kranz has appeared as a character in several dramatizations of the Apollo program.
Gene Kranz is played by Ed Harris in the 1995 film Apollo 13, who received an Oscar nomination for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role.
Gene Kranz is portrayed by Dan Butler in the 1998 HBO miniseries From the Earth to the Moon.
Gene Kranz has been featured in several documentaries using NASA film archives, including the 2004 History Channel production Failure Is Not an Option and its 2005 follow-up Beyond the Moon: Failure Is Not an Option 2, recurring History Channel broadcasts based on the 1979 book The Right Stuff, the 2008 Discovery Channel production When We Left Earth, and the 2017 David Fairhead documentary Mission Control: The Unsung Heroes of Apollo.
In 2020, Toledo Express Airport was renamed officially to the Eugene F Kranz Toledo Express Airport.
Gene Kranz then used it as the title of his 2000 autobiography.
Gene Kranz called a meeting of his branch and flight control team on the Monday morning following the Apollo 1 disaster that killed Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee.
Gene Kranz made the following address to the gathering, in which his expression of values and admonishments for future spaceflight are his legacy to NASA:.