Christopher C. Kraft Jr.
NASA’s first flight director, Kraft established Mission Control as we know it today
Kraft has been hailed as the father of NASA’s Mission Control Center, and was a core team member in the quest to put humans on the
Moon. Joining the NASA Space Task Group in 1958, Kraft became NASA’s first flight director and established the concept of NASA’s Mission Control, laying the foundations for its operational procedures and culture. Kraft always had to be one step ahead, trying to solve problems before they even arose. His responsibilities spanned a wide range of areas, from go/no-go decisions, space-to-ground communications and space tracking, as well as crew recovery.
His level-headed and strategic approach to manned missions resulted in him becoming deputy director of the Manned Space Center – now the Johnson Space Center – in 1969. Here he worked on Apollo 12, and he also played a critical role in bringing the ill-fated Apollo 13 back to Earth safely. In 1972 Kraft was promoted to director, and he was a key component in the success of the final Apollo missions, Skylab, the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project and the first flights of the Space Shuttle until his retirement in 1982.
After retiring, Kraft refused to sit back and take it easy. He consulted for various organisations, including IBM and Rockwell International. Kraft also served two terms as director-at-large of the Houston Chamber of Commerce and two fouryear terms as a member of the board of visitors at Virginia Tech. Despite his busy schedule, Kraft still found time to write an autobiography entitled Flight: My Life in Mission Control.
Kraft received numerous awards and honours during his lifetime, with two of the most significant coming from NASA itself. In 2006 NASA honoured Kraft for his fundamentally important role in America’s space programs with the Ambassador of Exploration Award. Additionally, in 2011 NASA’s Building 30 Mission Control Center at the Johnson Space Center was renamed, and is now known as the Christopher C. Kraft Jr. Mission Control Center.
Despite many awe-inspiring accomplishments throughout his career, Kraft’s journey into aeronautics was not preordained. Firstly, he had absolutely no interest in aeroplanes before he got to college. Born 28 February 1924 in Phoebus, Virginia, now part of Hampton, Kraft’s passions at high school were baseball and drum-and-bugle corps. After high school he enrolled to study mechanical engineering at Virginia Polytechnic Institute, and also became president of the Corps of Cadets. Kraft later credited his experience in the military Corps of Cadets at the Institute for shaping the personality that made him so successful in his NASA career. During his time at college, Kraft became inspired by a professor in his engineering department, who passed on his enthusiasm for aviation. He then decided to major in aeronautical engineering. In 1944 Kraft graduated with one of the first degrees in that field awarded by the institute.
After college Kraft had planned to join the Navy, but due to an accident when he was three years old which left his right hand severely burnt, he was deemed unfit for military service. In 1945 Kraft joined the Langley Aeronautical Laboratory of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA). Before joining NASA, Kraft had already significantly contributed to aeronautical flight research, investigating aircraft design problems in the stability and control branch at NACA. He married his high-school sweetheart Betty Anne Turnbull in 1950, and they had two children, Gordon and Kristi-Anne.
Sadly, Christopher C. Kraft Jr. passed away on 22 July 2019 at the old age of 95. The director of NASA’s Johnson Space Center, Mark S. Geyer, warmly remembers him as “a visionary, an American hero and a great leader”.