Gene Kranz Describes His Instrumental Role in the Apollo 11 Mission | Hacker News Reader

Gene Kranz Describes His Instrumental Role in the Apollo 11 Mission

kofc.org

28 pointsjkingsbery7 comments

It was a great joy to meet Mr. Kranz in the early 90's. I was part of a university seminar and a group of us had lunch with him, then heard him speak. I distinctly remember several key points that have been valuable to me in my career:

1- No matter what happens, stay calm and work the problem. 2- Plan for every possible situation. 3- Trust the team. 4- Understand the telemetry data.

I have applied these many times in my career and have shared with my teams the value of firm, decisive, and trusting leadership in technology. While there are many differences between an Apollo mission and an application launch or system outage, the principles are the same.

I really enjoyed Mr. Kranz book "Failure is Not an Option"[1] (which covers a lot more than just the malfunction of Apollo 13), and his subsequent appearances in documentaries.

I heard an NPR story[2] a couple of weeks ago re: the reopening of the restored Mission Control at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, TX. Mr. Kranz was interviewed as part of the story. It was a joy to hear him speak, even briefly. He's very inspiring.

[1] - https://www.amazon.com/Failure-Not-Option-Mission-Control-eb...

[2] - https://www.npr.org/2019/06/30/737327895/former-nasa-flight-...

I've had that book on my shelf for several years now after receiving it as a gift. I really need to make time to read it.

It's ironic that he's more well known as the flight director of Apollo 13 than Apollo 11.

Most of the film people have seen from Apollo 11 is the rocket itself (and most of the most famous Saturn V footage isn't even Apollo 11) and the lunar landing. I'd bet a significant number of people don't even know who Michael Collins is.

Most of the film people have seen from Apollo 13 is a movie where Gene's got a bunch of snappy quotes and has a starring role in the middle of the action in mission control.

I suppose it's an example of how much failures are far more visible than successes :) Going to the moon was "routine" by the time 13 launched because as far as the public could tell, it was all going smoothly. Seemed easy. A solved problem. That's even a theme in the Apollo 13 movie!

r.e. Michael Collins, his memoir 'Carrying the Fire' is a terrific read.

>I suppose it's an example of how much failures are far more visible than successes

This is true of support systems. I think in general, more people remember Apollo 11 than 13.

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