As the leader of the "Tiger Team" of flight directors who brought the Apollo 13 spaceship safely back to Earth on April 17, 1970, Gene Kranz demonstrated extraordinary courage and heroism.
Commissioned into the U.S. Air Force in 1954, Kranz flew high-performance jet fighter aircraft and was a flight test engineer on early jet bomber development. In 1960, Kranz joined the NASA Space Task Group at Langley, Virginia, as a flight controller on Project Mercury. He served as flight director for the 33 missions of Projects Gemini, Apollo, and Skylab, and led the flight control team during the first lunar Landing.
Kranz retired from NASA in 1994 after 37 years of federal service, and is currently a consultant and speaker. The hit film Apollo 13 chronicles Kranz's struggle to devise the plan that would safely bring the ship and its crew of three astronauts home after its oxygen system failed. Actor Ed Harris portrays Kranz in the film, which was directed by Ron Howard.
Since his retirement from NASA, Kranz has served as a flight engineer on a B-17 "Flying Fortress," constructed an aerobatic biplane, and published a New York Times best-selling memoir about his experiences in the space program. His book, Failure is Not an Option: Mission Control from Mercury to Apollo 13 and Beyond, was selected by The History Channel as the basis for a documentary on Mission Control.
