Remembering Chris Kraft

During John Glenn's first orbital flight, an indicator went off, causing concern over the heat shield.

Kraft and his team correctly determined the heat shield was fine. His judgement was ignored and he was forced to use an untested and unnecessarily risky procedure. Decades later, both Glenn and Kraft went on the record denouncing what happened. As a result, Kraft would define NASA policy as "the flight director may, after analysis of the flight, choose to take any necessary action required for the successful completion of the mission."

I can't imagine how Apollo 13 would have unfolded if this policy was not in place.

Kraft literally wrote the book on how space missions were to be run. He wrote all the procedures that you see being executed in Houston's Mission Control, devising the roles and responsibilities of each individual from "Flight" to CapComm. If there is a giant in the American space program, it is Christopher Kraft. RIP.

He is sort of the father for any type of complex procedure systems out there today. In prior jobs, references back and setups that came from the space program were pretty common.

Lots of us have worked in or around "mission control's" at companies (think any of the Telcoms, power distribution etc), so thanks Chris for your guidance!

I highly recommend his memoir, "Flight." It's a fantastic story about engineering and the birth of the space age.

There's a documentary featuring interviews with him - and many of the people who worked with him - on Netflix: https://www.netflix.com/watch/80175483

With Kraft's passing and the 50th anniversary of the moon landing, it is valuable to reflect on the many ways the space programs of several countries have substantially contributed to our work now. There is an elegance and structure to the work of mission control that is such a useful guide for how to deliver and operate technology.

It is sad to lose such talent and vision, but good to know that what he and his team created is so readily available to us now.

Oh, this makes me sad. +1 on people recommending his book "Flight". I very much enjoyed it too. I'd also recommend watching his lecture at MIT a decade or so ago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPpq1YNVKQY

Related: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20504164