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Christopher Columbus Kraft Jr. was an American aerospace and NASA engineer who was instrumental in establishing the agency's Mission Control Center and shaping its organization and culture. His protégé Glynn Lunney said in 1998: "the Control Center today ... is a reflection of Chris Kraft".
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science · American aerospace engineer (1924–2019) · inventor · writer · military flight engineer · director · also Christopher C. Kraft, Christopher C. Kraft Jr., Christopher Columbus "Chris" Kraft Jr., Kraft
Born 28 February 1924 · Died 22 July 2019 · Q735104
43 published statements · 0 followers
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The conductor can't play all the instruments—he may not even be able to play any one of them. But he knows when the first violin should be playing, and he knows when the trumpets should be loud or soft, and when the drummer should be drumming. He mixes all this up and out comes music. That's what we do here.
I lacked the fundamentalist verve and drove people away when I tried too hard to relate the early church to more modern interpretations. It was hard not to be modern when I spent my working days sending men into space.
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“The conductor can't play all the instruments—he may not even be able to play any one of them. But he knows when the first violin should be playing, and he knows when the trumpets should be loud or soft, and when the drummer should be drumming. He mixes all this up and out comes music. That's what we do here.”
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“I lacked the fundamentalist verve and drove people away when I tried too hard to relate the early church to more modern interpretations. It was hard not to be modern when I spent my working days sending men into space.”
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“It was glorious pandemonium, and through the mist in my own eyes, I saw Bob Gilruth wiping at his and hoping that no one saw him crying. I put my hand on his arm and squeezed. [...] He lifted my hand from his arm and shook it strongly. There were no words from either of us. The lumps in our throats held them back.”
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“Chris, you come up with a basic mission plan. You know, the bottom-line stuff on how we fly a man from a launch pad into space and back again. It would be good if you kept him alive.”
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“I saw a team of highly skilled engineers, each one an expert on a different piece of the Mercury capsule. We'd have a flow of accurate telemetry data so the experts could monitor their systems, see and even predict problems, and pass along instructions to the astronaut.”
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“My flight controllers and I were a lot closer to the systems and to events than anyone in top management. From now on, I swore, they'd pay hell before they overruled any decision I made.”
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“The four of us [...] had become an unofficial committee that got together often in Bob's office to discuss problems, plans and off-the-wall ideas. Not much happened in Gemini or Apollo that didn't either originate with us or have our input.”
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“I swore an oath that Scott Carpenter would never again fly in space.”
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Was portrayed in the mini-series The Right Stuff by Eric Ladin
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Died 2019-07-22.
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In Houston, aged 95, two days after the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moonwalks
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Kraft died on July 22, 2019, in Houston, aged 95, two days after the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moonwalks.
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Was portrayed in the film First Man by J
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Awarded National Aviation Hall of Fame (2016).
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And Kraft Elementary School in Hampton, Virginia, near his hometown, was named for him
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NASA gave Kraft the Ambassador of Exploration Award, which carried with it a sample of lunar material brought back by Apollo 11
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Kraft published his autobiography, Flight: My Life in Mission Control
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Reopened the issue; the chapter that dealt with the flight of Mercury-Atlas 7 was titled "The Man Malfunctioned"
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The organization described him as "a driving force in the U
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Was awarded the National Space Trophy from the Rotary National Award for Space Achievement Foundation, which described him as "a driving force in the U
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“He ... instilled a sense of what was right, what was wrong, what you had to do, how good you had to be, and those standards that he kind of inbred into everybody, by his own example, and by what he did with us, continue today. The Control Center today ... is a reflection of Chris Kraft.”
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Awarded Theodore von Kármán Award (1994).
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Was appointed chairman of the space shuttle management independent review team, a panel made up of leading aerospace experts, whose remit was to investigate how NASA could make its Space Shuttle program more cost effe
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Was appointed chairman of a panel to make NASA's Space Shuttle program more cost effective
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Awarded International Space Hall of Fame (1988).
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Won NASA Distinguished Service Medal (1981).
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Had been involved in a conflict with the NASA Administrator and other top officials over the conduct of the STS-2 mission, and over issues relating to NASA organization and management
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Won ASME Medal (1973).
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Became the director of the MSC, replacing Gilruth, for whom Kraft had worked since his arrival at Langley in 1945
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Became director of the Manned Spacecraft Center (later Johnson Space Center), following his mentor Robert R
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Awarded Theodore Roosevelt Award (1971).
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Won NASA Distinguished Service Medal (1969).
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Kraft was named deputy director of the Manned Spacecraft Center (MSC)
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(for Apollo 8 and Apollo 11), in 1981 for the Space Shuttle, and in 1982 as a special award
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NASA faced the possibility of a full Apollo test mission being delayed until 1969
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The three crew members were killed in a fire during a countdown test on the pad
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Kraft had reluctantly concluded that his responsibilities as a manager would keep him from serving as a flight director on the next crewed mission, Apollo 7, and on missions thereafter
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“[T]he guy on the ground ultimately controls the mission. There's no question about that in my mind or in the astronauts' minds. They are going to do what he says.”
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Joined the Space Task Group, a small team entrusted with the responsibility of putting America's first man in space
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The Soviet flight of Sputnik 1 prompted the United States to accelerate its fledgling space program
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Was diagnosed with an ulcer and started thinking about a change of career
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Kraft married Betty Anne Kraft (née Turnbull) whom he had met in high school
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Born 1924-02-28.
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It was glorious pandemonium, and through the mist in my own eyes, I saw Bob Gilruth wiping at his and hoping that no one saw him crying. I put my hand on his arm and squeezed. [...] He lifted my hand from his arm and shook it strongly. There were no words from either of us. The lumps in our throats held them back.
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