Christopher Columbus Kraft Jr.
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We have said how we stand on the shoulders of giants…but sadly yesterday, we lost the giant on which other giants stood.
Christopher Columbus Kraft Jr. (February 28, 1924 – July 22, 2019) was an aerospace engineer, whom upon graduation in 1944, began work at NACA, a newly created cutting-edge research and development organization. Working with wind tunnels to test new aircraft designs such as the X-1 rocket plane, Kraft had discovered and identified the dangers of wingtip vortices that trail moving aircraft. This significance of his finding was long forgotten and only later rediscovered at a much later date.
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On July 29, 1958, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act, which established NASA and subsumed NACA within this newly created organization. Langley Research Center became a part of NASA, as did all Langley employees such as Kraft. A Space Task Group was officially formed, and Kraft became one of the original thirty-five engineers to be assigned to Project Mercury, America's man-in-space program. As a member of the Space Task Group, Kraft was assigned to the flight operations division, which made plans and arrangements for the operation of the Mercury spacecraft during flight and for the control and monitoring of missions from the ground. The plan directives were simple...
"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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Kraft began to work on the creation of NASA's flight operations, no human being had yet flown in space, and a plan had to be put together. Flight plans, timelines, procedures, mission rules, spacecraft tracking, telemetry, ground support, telecommunications networks and contingency management.This was when Kraft envisioned the concept of the mission control center. Kraft realized that an astronaut could only do so much, particularly during the fast-moving launch phase; the Mercury spacecraft would require real time monitoring and support from specialist engineers.
"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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"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."
Mercury Control Center, was created, leaving another position envisioned by Kraft, a man who would coordinate the team of engineers and make real-time decisions about the conduct of the mission. Kraft said "There needs to be someone in charge of the flights while they're actually going on, and I want to be that person.” and this unusual way, the position of flight director was born.
Kraft served as flight director during all six of the crewed Mercury missions
A pivotal moment occurred during the Mercury-Atlas 6 flight of John Glenn, when it was reported that telemetry was showing a "Segment 51" indicator. This suggested that the capsule's landing bag may have deployed early. Kraft believed that it was due to faulty instrumentation rather than to an actual early deployment. Kraft consulting with his flight controllers, was now convinced that the indication was false, and that no action was needed. However, his superiors overruled Kraft, and instructed Glenn to leave the capsule's retrorocket package on during re-entry in hopes it would hold the heat shield in place. Kraft, however, felt that this was an unacceptable risk. "I was aghast," he remembered. "If any of three retrorockets had solid fuel remaining, an explosion could rip everything apart."
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John Glenn, and Friendship 7 landed safely, but an inspection of his capsule revealed that one of the landing bag switches had in fact been faulty. Kraft was right; the heat shield had not been loose after all, and an extreme risk was placed on the crew by his superiors
"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.” - Kris Kraft
At the end of the Mercury program, Kraft was invited to attend a ceremony in the White House Rose Garden, where he received the NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal. It was awarded by President John F. Kennedy and NASA Administrator James Webb. "None of us have many days in our lives like that one," Kraft remembered.
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As the Gemini program began, Kraft was now the head of mission operations, in charge of a team of flight directors, as well as serving as a flight director.
Kraft was remarkably successful at passing on responsibility to his new fellow flight directors, as Gene Kranz found during his first shift handover on Gemini 4, Kraft simply said 'You're in charge" and walked out.
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The Gemini program brought a string of firsts for NASA — first flight with two astronauts, first rendezvous in space, and America's first spacewalk, which occurred during Gemini 4. Kraft, at his console, was monitoring Ed White’s spacewalk, and when the obviously "mesmerized” Astronaut was delaying his return to the capsule, Kraft, always mindful of safety margins yelled on his ground link to Gus Grissom: The Flight Director says "Get back in!”
After Gemini 7, Kraft allowed other flight directors to take charge of the remaining missions so that he could devote more time to to the next big project…called the Apollo program.
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Sadly, on January 27, 1967, the Apollo 1 fire occurred and Command Pilot Virgil I. "Gus" Grissom, Senior Pilot Ed White, and Pilot Roger B. Chaffee were killed in what was supposed to be a simple countdown test on the pad. Kraft was helpless as he watched the tragedy unfold before him. Betty Grissom requested Chris to be one of the pallbearers at Grissom's funeral when he was buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
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As Apollo 8 went entered orbit around the Moon on Christmas Eve, 1968, Kris realized that only ten years earlier, Kraft had joined Bob Gilruth's newly founded Space Task Group, and now the two men sat together in Mission Control, reflecting on how far they had come. Around them, the room was filled with cheers as the Apollo 8 spacecraft rounded the moon, but Kraft and Gilruth celebrated more quietly.
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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.”
When Apollo 11 landed on our moon, Kraft watched from Mission Control, and during the Apollo 13 mission, Chris was once again, instrumental in helping to bring the crew back home.
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Many Apollo engineers, considered Kraft to have been one of the best managers in the program. He personally hand-picked and trained an entire generation of NASA flight directors, some whom referred to Kraft simply as "The Teacher”
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"To err is human", went one of Kraft's favorite sayings, "but to do so more than once is contrary to Flight Operations Directorate policy.”
In 1969, Kraft was named deputy director of the Manned Spacecraft Center, and on January 14, 1972, he became the director, replacing his old friend Bob Gilruth, for whom Kraft had worked since 1945. Kris remained as Director of the Manned Spacecraft Center for the next thirteen years...
Sadly, Christopher Columbus Kraft Jr. passed away on July 22nd, 2019, in Houston, at the age of 95, only two days after the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moonwalks.
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