Polskie Forum Astronautyczne
Człowiek i Astronautyka => Osobistości => Wątek zaczęty przez: mss w Lipca 23, 2019, 00:57
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W wieku 95 lat zmarł Chris Kraft - twórca MCC-H i wieloletni szef JSC, kierownik lotu wielu misji załogowych.
Więcej: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_C._Kraft_Jr.
(https://www.nasa.gov/centers/johnson/images/content/114693main_gallery_people20_med.jpg)
https://www.nasa.gov/imagegallery/chris-kraft
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Chris Kraft (1924-2019)
By AmericaSpace, on July 22nd, 2019
(https://www.americaspace.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Chris-Kraft-1-768x608.jpg)
Photo Credit: NASA
Today, Christopher Columbus Kraft passed-away. Chris Kraft served his country and the world with honor and distinction. His passing is a great loss for all of those who have traveled through space. His wisdom and knowledge will be missed so very much by those today planning future journeys beyond.
According to his NASA bio (https://www.nasa.gov/chris-kraft/), “Chris Kraft joined the NASA Space Task Group in November 1958 as NASA’s first flight director, with responsibilities that immersed him in mission procedures and challenging operational issues. He personally invented the mission planning and control processes required for crewed space missions, in areas as diverse as go/no-go decisions, space-to-ground communications, space tracking, real-time problem solving and crew recovery.
“During the Apollo program, Kraft became the Director of Flight Operations at MSC, responsible for overall human spaceflight mission planning, training and execution. His leadership in this critical area continued through the Apollo 12 mission in 1969, at which time he became deputy director of the Center. He served as the center director from January 1972 until his retirement in August 1982, playing a vital role in the success of the final Apollo missions, the Skylab crewed space station, the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project and the first flights of the Space Shuttle.”
The rest of the NASA bio includes surprises, such as how Chris Kraft first ran into Marine Major John Glenn–initially not warmly. But Kraft was one of those people who had the data to back-up any call he made. Like when he turned Major Glenn from a doubter to a believer in Kraft’s determination that the F8U was faulty because Kraft had the data.
NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine issued a statement in which he said, “America has truly lost a national treasure today with the passing of one of NASA’s earliest pioneers – flight director Chris Kraft. We send our deepest condolences to the Kraft family”.
Chris Kraft was made of the sort of material that made possible the successful journey of America’s space program from nascent to one that fulfilled Kennedy’s goal of, “…landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to earth before this decade is out”. And beyond.
https://www.americaspace.com/2019/07/22/chris-kraft-1924-2019/
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NASA Administrator Remembers Mission Control Pioneer Chris Kraft
RELEASE 19-061 July 23, 2019
(https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/kraft1.jpg)
Christopher C. Kraft, Jr. created the concept of NASA's Mission Control and developed its organization, operational procedures and culture, then made it a critical element of the success of the nation's human spaceflight programs. Credits: NASA
The following is a statement from NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine on the passing of Chris Kraft, who died Monday in Houston at the age of 95:
“America has truly lost a national treasure today with the passing of one of NASA’s earliest pioneers – flight director Chris Kraft. We send our deepest condolences to the Kraft family.
“Chris was one of the core team members that helped our nation put humans in space and on the Moon, and his legacy is immeasurable. Chris’ engineering talents were put to work for our nation at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, before NASA even existed, but it was his legendary work to establish mission control as we know it for the earliest crewed space flights that perhaps most strongly advanced our journey of discovery. From that home base, America’s achievements in space were heard across the globe, and our astronauts in space were anchored to home even as they accomplished unprecedented feats.
“Once comparing his complex work as a flight director to a conductor’s, Kraft said, ‘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.’
“Chris was flight director at some of the most iconic moments of space history, as humans first orbited the Earth and stepped outside of an orbiting spacecraft. For his work, he was awarded the NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal by President John F. Kennedy. Chris later led the Johnson Space Center, known then as the Manned Spacecraft Center, as our human exploration work reached for new heights following the Apollo Program. We stand on his shoulders as we reach deeper into the solar system, and he will always be with us on those journeys.”
For more information about Chris Kraft, visit:
https://www.nasa.gov/chris-kraft
https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-administrator-remembers-mission-control-pioneer-chris-kraft
2) 29.02.2024
https://twitter.com/NASAhistory/status/1762885387054145710
100 years ago today, the king of the Mission Control Center, Chris Kraft, was born 👑
A keen-witted aeronautical engineer, Kraft became a key factor in @NASA's early successes in space flight as NASA's first flight director.
Learn more about Chris Kraft: https://nasa.gov/people/christopher-c-kraft-jr/
3)
https://twitter.com/ron_eisele/status/1815071829037391998
22 July 2019. Death of Christopher Columbus Kraft, Jr. He created the concept of NASA’s Mission Control and developed its organization, operational procedures and culture, then made it a critical element of the success of NASA's manned spaceflight programs.
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Chris Kraft, first flight director and father of Mission Control, dies
(http://www.collectspace.com//images/news-072319a.jpg)
Chris Kraft at his Flight Director console in Mission Control during an Aug. 15, 1965 simulation for the Gemini 4 mission. (NASA)
July 23, 2019 — Chris Kraft, NASA's first flight director who invented the concept of Mission Control, has died. He was 95.
Kraft's death in Houston on Monday (July 22) was confirmed by NASA.
"America has truly lost a national treasure today with the passing of one of NASA's earliest pioneers," Administrator Jim Bridenstine said in a statement. "We send our deepest condolences to the Kraft family."
"Chris was one of the core team members [who] helped our nation put humans in space and on the moon, and his legacy is immeasurable," said Bridenstine.
A member of the 1958 Space Task Group that was charged with managing the United States' burgeoning human spaceflight programs, Kraft was named NASA's first flight director with the responsibility of not only defining the position's role, but also how mission planning and operations would be conducted.
Beginning with the first launch of a Mercury astronaut into space, Kraft developed the processes for go-no-go decisions, space-to-ground communications, mission tracking, real-time problem solving and crew recovery.
(http://www.collectspace.com//images/news-072319b.jpg)
Chris Kraft, flight director during Project Mercury, works at his flight control console at Mercury Mission Control in Florida. (NASA)
"Mercury Control (http://www.collectspace.com//news/news-050410a.html) was our first classroom, Chris was our first teacher and mentor," said Gene Kranz, one of the first three flight directors who Kraft chose to succeed him in the role, speaking at the 2011 naming of NASA's Mission Control Center (http://www.collectspace.com//news/news-041511b.html) in Houston, Texas, for Kraft. "Chris was our leader, his call sign was 'Flight.' Integrity was his hallmark."
From 1961 to 1966, Kraft served as Flight for many historic missions, including the first launch to put an American astronaut into Earth orbit and the first spacewalk of the Gemini program. During the later phases of the Mercury program, Kraft helped develop the Manned Spacecraft Center (MSC; renamed the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center in 1973) in Houston, and then moved there in 1962, along with other members of the Space Task Group.
"Once comparing his complex work as a flight director to a conductor's, Kraft said, '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,'" said Bridenstine, citing the late flight director.
During the Apollo program, Kraft was promoted to Director of Flight Operations and given responsibility for the overall mission planning, training and execution of human spaceflight at NASA. He continued in this role through the first and second moon landing missions in 1969, before becoming deputy director of the Manned Spacecraft Center.
(http://www.collectspace.com//images/news-072319c.jpg)
Chris Kraft joins in the celebration for the successful conclusion of the Apollo 11 moon landing mission in Mission Control. (NASA)
Kraft later served as MSC (and then Johnson Space Center) director from January 1972 until his retirement in August 1982, adding to the success of the remaining Apollo missions; the first U.S. space station, Skylab; the first joint mission carried out with the Soviet Union, the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project; and the first missions of the space shuttle.
Born on Feb. 28, 1924, in Phoebus (now part of Hampton), Virginia, Christopher Columbus Kraft, Jr. inherited his name from his father. He would later write that with the choice of his name "some of my life's direction was settled from the start."
Kraft attended Virginia Polytechnic Institute (now Virginia Tech) and enrolled in mechanical engineering in 1941. After being declared unfit for military service as a result of a severe burn suffered to his right hand when he was three years old, Kraft graduated with one of the first aeronautical engineering degrees awarded by the institute in 1944.
Following a short-lived position at Chance Vought in Connecticut, Kraft joined the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), the predecessor to NASA, at the Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory in Virginia in 1945. There, he served as project engineer for the P-51H, an advanced version of the Mustang single-seat fighter and fighter-bomber. He also conducted analytical work on gust alleviation and directed a study on the wake turbulence caused by trailing vortices.
Kraft was then assigned as project engineer for the Navy's Vought F8U Crusader jet aircraft, which was exhibiting unacceptable g-force control behavior during test flights at Langley. Working with test pilot Jack Reeder, Kraft was able to identify the structural source of the problem and advised the Navy of such. His warnings were heeded, resulting in the F8U being redesigned before serving as a fighter jet during the Vietnam War.
After his 24 years of service at NASA, Kraft consulted for IBM and Rockwell International, served as a director-at-large of the Houston Chamber of Commerce and as a member of the Board of Visitors at Virginia Tech. In 2001, he published an autobiography entitled "Flight: My Life in Mission Control," which became a New York Times bestseller.
For his contributions to the early space program, Kraft was awarded the NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal, four NASA Distinguished Service Medals and the 1979 Goddard Memorial Trophy bestowed by the National Space Club. In 1999, he was presented the Rotary National Award for Space Achievement (RNASA) for being a "driving force in the U.S. human spaceflight program, from its beginnings to the space shuttle era, a man whose accomplishments have become legendary."
In April 2011, NASA named its Mission Control Center at Johnson Space Center in Kraft's honor. The Christopher C. Kraft, Jr., Mission Control Center (http://www.collectspace.com//news/news-041511a.html) continues to be active, operating after more than 50 years in support of space missions.
"I am pleased as I can be to have you name this building after me," said Kraft at the time. "Not because it's for me, but because it is for the flight control people and for those people here at the Johnson Space Center."
Kraft is survived by his wife of 68 years, Betty Anne Turnbull and children Gordon and Kristi-Anne.
(http://www.collectspace.com//images/news-041511a/001.jpg)
Chris Kraft stands below the sign dedicating Johnson Space Center's Mission Control Center in Houston in his honor, April 2011. (collectSPACE)
http://www.collectspace.com//news/news-072319a-chris-kraft-flight-director-obituary.html
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EDIT 28.02.23
https://twitter.com/NASAhistory/status/1630583618547380224
https://twitter.com/spacemen1969/status/1630464064697540608