Eugene F. Kranz
Encyclopedia
Kranz's book, titled Failure Is Not an Option, published five years after the movie, stated, "...a creed that we all lived by: "Failure is not an option."" (with the pronoun 'we' referring to those working at "NASA's Mission Control Center"). The book has three index references for the phrase, but none of those give any indication of the phrase being apocryphal. In the 2008 Discovery Channel mini-series When We Left Earth, he appears throughout the series with his customary flattop haircut and wearing his white vest from the Apollo 13 mission (mission patch plainly visible) - a clue as to the mission for which Kranz has the greatest pride as the NASA MSC Flight Director ("Crew safety is the first priority." --Kranz).
, 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. He retired from NASA in 1994 after the successful STS-61
flight that repaired the optically flawed Hubble Space Telescope
in 1993. In addition to having written Failure Is Not An Option, which was adapted for cable TV for The History Channel
in 2004, he also flies an aerobatic aircraft and serves as a flight engineer
for a restored B-17 Flying Fortress.
played Kranz in the 1995 film, Apollo 13
, and received an Oscar nomination for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role
.
Dan Butler, a character actor better known for his portrayal of "Bulldog" Briscoe on the sit-com Frasier
, portrayed Kranz in the HBO miniseries
From the Earth to the Moon.
Matt Frewer
, perhaps best known as Max Headroom
, portrayed Kranz in the 1996 TV movie Apollo 11
.
Gene Kranz has also been the subject of several documentaries based upon NASA film archives; the noteworthy ones being the 2004 Failure Is Not An Option narrated by actor Scott Glenn
, co-star of the film The Right Stuff, in recurring broadcasts by the History Channel based on the best-selling book, and the 2008 Discovery Channel When We Left Earth
narrated by actor Gary Sinise, co-star of the film Apollo 13
. He is also prominently featured in the History Channel’s 2005 Beyond the Moon: Failure Is Not an Option 2, also narrated by Scott Glenn.
astronauts. Though Apollo 13 did not achieve its main objective, to Kranz its astronauts' rescue is an example of the "human factor" born out of the 1960s space race
. According to Kranz, this factor is what is largely responsible for helping put America on the moon in only a decade. The blend of young intelligent minds working day in and day out by sheer willpower yielded "the right stuff."
Gene Kranz had this to say about the "human factor":
According to him, a few organized examples of this factor included Grumman, who developed the Apollo Lunar Module
, North American Aviation
, and the Lockheed Corporation
. After the excitement of the 1960s, these companies dissolved into corporate mergings, such as happened when Lockheed became Lockheed Martin
. Another example of the "human factor" was the ingenuity and hard work by teams that developed the emergency plans and sequences as new problems arose during the Apollo 13
mission.
disaster that killed Gus Grissom
, Ed White
, and Roger Chaffee. Kranz made the following address to the gathering (The Kranz Dictum), in which his expression of values and admonishments for future spaceflight are his legacy to NASA:
After the Space Shuttle Columbia accident
in 2003, NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe
quoted this speech in a discussion about what changes should be made in response to the disaster. Referring to the words "tough and competent," he said, "These words are the price of admission to the ranks of NASA and we should adopt it that way."
is still the same place today compared to the years of the space race
, he replied:
However, in his book Failure Is Not an Option, he also expressed disappointment that support for space exploration dried up after the Apollo program—indeed, the last three Apollo flights were cancelled. His vision for renewing the space program includes:
Later career
Kranz would continue as a Flight Director through Apollo 17Apollo 17
Apollo 17 was the eleventh and final manned mission in the American Apollo space program. Launched at 12:33 a.m. EST on December 7, 1972, with a three-member crew consisting of Commander Eugene Cernan, Command Module Pilot Ronald Evans, and Lunar Module Pilot Harrison Schmitt, Apollo 17 remains the...
, 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. He retired from NASA in 1994 after the successful STS-61
STS-61
STS-61 was the first Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission, and the fifth flight of the Space Shuttle Endeavour. The mission launched on 2 December 1993 from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The mission restored the spaceborne observatory's vision, marred by spherical aberration, with the...
flight that repaired the optically flawed Hubble Space Telescope
Hubble Space Telescope
The Hubble Space Telescope is a space telescope that was carried into orbit by a Space Shuttle in 1990 and remains in operation. A 2.4 meter aperture telescope in low Earth orbit, Hubble's four main instruments observe in the near ultraviolet, visible, and near infrared...
in 1993. In addition to having written Failure Is Not An Option, which was adapted for cable TV for The History Channel
The History Channel
History, formerly known as The History Channel, is an American-based international satellite and cable TV channel that broadcasts a variety of reality shows and documentary programs including those of fictional and non-fictional historical content, together with speculation about the future.-...
in 2004, he also flies an aerobatic aircraft and serves as a flight engineer
Flight engineer
Flight engineers work in three types of aircraft: fixed-wing , rotary wing , and space flight .As airplanes became even larger requiring more engines and complex systems to operate, the workload on the two pilots became excessive during certain critical parts of the flight regime, notably takeoffs...
for a restored B-17 Flying Fortress.
Family
Kranz, a Catholic, has six children with his wife, Marta: Carmen (born 1958), Lucy (1959), Joan Frances (1961), Mark (1963), Brigid (1964), and Jean Marie (1966).Kranz on film
Ed HarrisEd Harris
Edward Allen "Ed" Harris is an American actor, writer, and director, known for his performances in Appaloosa, Radio, The Rock, The Abyss, Apollo 13, A Beautiful Mind, A History of Violence, and The Truman Show. Harris has also narrated commercials for The Home Depot and other companies...
played Kranz in the 1995 film, Apollo 13
Apollo 13 (film)
Apollo 13 is a 1995 American drama film directed by Ron Howard. The film stars Tom Hanks, Kevin Bacon, Bill Paxton, Gary Sinise, Kathleen Quinlan and Ed Harris. The screenplay by William Broyles, Jr...
, and received an Oscar nomination for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor
Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actor who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry. Since its inception, however, the...
.
Dan Butler, a character actor better known for his portrayal of "Bulldog" Briscoe on the sit-com Frasier
Frasier
Frasier is an American sitcom that was broadcast on NBC for eleven seasons, from September 16, 1993, to May 13, 2004. The program was created and produced by David Angell, Peter Casey, and David Lee in association with Grammnet and Paramount Network Television.A spin-off of Cheers, Frasier stars...
, portrayed Kranz in the HBO miniseries
Miniseries
A miniseries , in a serial storytelling medium, is a television show production which tells a story in a limited number of episodes. The exact number is open to interpretation; however, they are usually limited to fewer than a whole season. The term "miniseries" is generally a North American term...
From the Earth to the Moon.
Matt Frewer
Matt Frewer
Matthew "Matt" Frewer is a Canadian American stage, TV and film actor. Acting since 1983, he is known for portraying the 1980s icon Max Headroom and the retired villain Moloch in the film adaptation of Watchmen.-Life and career:...
, perhaps best known as Max Headroom
Max Headroom (character)
Max Headroom is a fictional British artificial intelligence, known for his wit and stuttering, distorted, electronically sampled voice. The character was created by George Stone, Annabel Jankel, and Rocky Morton in the mid nineteen eighties, and portrayed by Matt Frewer as "The World's first...
, portrayed Kranz in the 1996 TV movie Apollo 11
Apollo 11
In early 1969, Bill Anders accepted a job with the National Space Council effective in August 1969 and announced his retirement as an astronaut. At that point Ken Mattingly was moved from the support crew into parallel training with Anders as backup Command Module Pilot in case Apollo 11 was...
.
Gene Kranz has also been the subject of several documentaries based upon NASA film archives; the noteworthy ones being the 2004 Failure Is Not An Option narrated by actor Scott Glenn
Scott Glenn
Theodore Scott Glenn is an American actor. His roles have included Wes Hightower in Urban Cowboy , astronaut Alan Shepard in The Right Stuff ,Emmett in Silverado , Commander Bart Mancuso in The Hunt for Red October , Jack Crawford in The Silence of the Lambs and The Wise Man in Sucker Punch -Early...
, co-star of the film The Right Stuff, in recurring broadcasts by the History Channel based on the best-selling book, and the 2008 Discovery Channel When We Left Earth
When We Left Earth: The NASA Missions
When We Left Earth: The NASA Missions or NASA's Greatest Missions: When We Left Earth in the UK is a Discovery Channel HD documentary miniseries consisting of six episodes documenting American human spaceflight, spanning from the first Mercury flights through the Gemini program to the Apollo moon...
narrated by actor Gary Sinise, co-star of the film Apollo 13
Apollo 13 (film)
Apollo 13 is a 1995 American drama film directed by Ron Howard. The film stars Tom Hanks, Kevin Bacon, Bill Paxton, Gary Sinise, Kathleen Quinlan and Ed Harris. The screenplay by William Broyles, Jr...
. He is also prominently featured in the History Channel’s 2005 Beyond the Moon: Failure Is Not an Option 2, also narrated by Scott Glenn.
Teams, "the human factor" and "the right stuff"
Kranz was the leader of the "white team", a shift at mission control that contributed to saving the Apollo 13Apollo 13
Apollo 13 was the seventh manned mission in the American Apollo space program and the third intended to land on the Moon. The craft was launched on April 11, 1970, at 13:13 CST. The landing was aborted after an oxygen tank exploded two days later, crippling the service module upon which the Command...
astronauts. Though Apollo 13 did not achieve its main objective, to Kranz its astronauts' rescue is an example of the "human factor" born out of the 1960s space race
Space Race
The Space Race was a mid-to-late 20th century competition between the Soviet Union and the United States for supremacy in space exploration. Between 1957 and 1975, Cold War rivalry between the two nations focused on attaining firsts in space exploration, which were seen as necessary for national...
. According to Kranz, this factor is what is largely responsible for helping put America on the moon in only a decade. The blend of young intelligent minds working day in and day out by sheer willpower yielded "the right stuff."
Gene Kranz had this to say about the "human factor":
According to him, a few organized examples of this factor included Grumman, who developed the Apollo Lunar Module
Apollo Lunar Module
The Apollo Lunar Module was the lander portion of the Apollo spacecraft built for the US Apollo program by Grumman to carry a crew of two from lunar orbit to the surface and back...
, North American Aviation
North American Aviation
North American Aviation was a major US aerospace manufacturer, responsible for a number of historic aircraft, including the T-6 Texan trainer, the P-51 Mustang fighter, the B-25 Mitchell bomber, the F-86 Sabre jet fighter, the X-15 rocket plane, and the XB-70, as well as Apollo Command and Service...
, and the Lockheed Corporation
Lockheed Corporation
The Lockheed Corporation was an American aerospace company. Lockheed was founded in 1912 and later merged with Martin Marietta to form Lockheed Martin in 1995.-Origins:...
. After the excitement of the 1960s, these companies dissolved into corporate mergings, such as happened when Lockheed became Lockheed Martin
Lockheed Martin
Lockheed Martin is an American global aerospace, defense, security, and advanced technology company with worldwide interests. It was formed by the merger of Lockheed Corporation with Martin Marietta in March 1995. It is headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, in the Washington Metropolitan Area....
. Another example of the "human factor" was the ingenuity and hard work by teams that developed the emergency plans and sequences as new problems arose during the Apollo 13
Apollo 13
Apollo 13 was the seventh manned mission in the American Apollo space program and the third intended to land on the Moon. The craft was launched on April 11, 1970, at 13:13 CST. The landing was aborted after an oxygen tank exploded two days later, crippling the service module upon which the Command...
mission.
Response to Apollo I launch pad fire -- The Kranz Dictum
Kranz called a meeting of his branch and flight control team on the Monday morning following the Apollo 1Apollo 1
Apollo 1 was scheduled to be the first manned mission of the Apollo manned lunar landing program, with a target launch date of February 21, 1967. A cabin fire during a launch pad test on January 27 at Launch Pad 34 at Cape Canaveral killed all three crew members: Command Pilot Virgil "Gus"...
disaster that killed Gus Grissom
Gus Grissom
Virgil Ivan Grissom , , better known as Gus Grissom, was one of the original NASA Project Mercury astronauts and a United States Air Force pilot...
, Ed White
Edward Higgins White
Edward Higgins White, II was an engineer, United States Air Force officer and NASA astronaut. On June 3, 1965, he became the first American to "walk" in space. White died along with fellow astronauts Gus Grissom and Roger Chaffee during a pre-launch test for the first manned Apollo mission at...
, and Roger Chaffee. Kranz made the following address to the gathering (The Kranz Dictum), in which his expression of values and admonishments for future spaceflight are his legacy to NASA:
After the Space Shuttle Columbia accident
Space Shuttle Columbia disaster
The Space Shuttle Columbia disaster occurred on February 1, 2003, when shortly before it was scheduled to conclude its 28th mission, STS-107, the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated over Texas and Louisiana during re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere, resulting in the death of all seven crew members...
in 2003, NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe
Sean O'Keefe
Sean O'Keefe is the CEO of EADS North America, a subsidiary of the European aerospace firm EADS, a former Administrator of NASA, and former chancellor of Louisiana State University . O'Keefe is also a former member of the board of directors of DuPont...
quoted this speech in a discussion about what changes should be made in response to the disaster. Referring to the words "tough and competent," he said, "These words are the price of admission to the ranks of NASA and we should adopt it that way."
Feelings about life after the moon
Kranz felt that much of the "human factor" unfortunately dried up after the moon landings, particularly due to the nation seeing the moon landings as a short-term goal against the Russians — and not much more. When asked in spring 2000 if NASANASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
is still the same place today compared to the years of the space race
Space Race
The Space Race was a mid-to-late 20th century competition between the Soviet Union and the United States for supremacy in space exploration. Between 1957 and 1975, Cold War rivalry between the two nations focused on attaining firsts in space exploration, which were seen as necessary for national...
, he replied:
However, in his book Failure Is Not an Option, he also expressed disappointment that support for space exploration dried up after the Apollo program—indeed, the last three Apollo flights were cancelled. His vision for renewing the space program includes:
Honors
- American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics: Lawrence Sperry Award, 1967
- Saint Louis University: Alumni Merit Award, 1968; Founders Award, 1993
- NASA Exceptional Service Medal - 1969 and 1970
- Downtown Jaycees of Washington D.C. Arthur S. Fleming Award - One of ten outstanding young men in government service in 1970
- NASA Distinguished Service Medal - 1970, 1982, and 1988
- NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal - 1973, 1993
- NASA SES Meritorious Executive - 1980, 1985 and 1992
- American Astronautical Society: AAS Fellow, 1982; Spaceflight Award 1987
- Robert R. Gilruth Award, 1988, North Galveston County Jaycees
- The National Space Club; Astronautics Engineer of the Year Award, 1992
- Theodore Von Karman Lectureship, 1994
- Recipient of the 1995 History of Aviation Award for the "Safe return of the Apollo 13 Crew," Hawthorne, California
- Honorary Doctor of Engineering Degree from the Milwaukee School of Engineering, 1996
- Louis Bauer Lecturer, Aerospace Medical Association, 2000
- Selected for "2004 and 2006 Gathering of Eagles" honoring Aerospace and Aviation Pioneers at the Air Force Air Command and Staff College, Maxwell AFB, Alabama
- John Glenn Lecture, Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, 2005
- Lloyd Nolen, Lifetime Achievement in Aviation Award, 2005
- Wright Brothers Lecture — Wright Patterson AFB, 2006
- NASA Ambassador of Exploration, 2006
- Rotary National Award for Space Achievement's National Space Trophy, 2007
Sources
- Failure Is Not an Option: Mission Control from Mercury to Apollo 13 and Beyond Gene Kranz, Simon and Schuster, 2000, ISBN 9780743200790
- Lost Moon by James LovellJim LovellJames "Jim" Arthur Lovell, Jr., is a former NASA astronaut and a retired captain in the United States Navy, most famous as the commander of the Apollo 13 mission, which suffered a critical failure en route to the Moon but was brought back safely to Earth by the efforts of the crew and mission...
(ISBN 0-671-53464-5) - The Last Man on the Moon: Astronaut Eugene Cernan and America's Race in Space by Gene Cernan (ISBN 0-312-19906-6)
- Thirteen: The Apollo Flight That Failed by Henry S.F. Cooper, Jr. (ISBN 0-8018-5097-5)
External links
- Rotary National Award for Space Achievement (RNASA) | 2007 National Space Trophy Recipient
- Space Lifeguard: An Interview with Gene Kranz from Space.com posted 2000-04-11
- Eugene F. KRANZ long interview conducted by Rebecca Wright et al. of the Johnson Space Center Oral History Project, nasa.gov, January 8, 1999
- "Missing out on outer space" Op-Ed written by Kranz for The Hill. 12 June 2007.
- Smithsonian Magazine article about Gene Kranz's Vest