Christopher C. Kraft Jr.

Kraft died on July 22, 2019, in Houston, aged 95, two days after the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moonwalks. The cause was not announced.

In 2006, NASA gave Kraft the Ambassador of Exploration Award, which carried with it a sample of lunar material brought back by Apollo 11. Kraft in turn presented the award to his alma mater, Virginia Tech, for display in its College of Engineering. He was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame, on October 1, 2016. The Mission Control Center at the Johnson Space Center was renamed the Christopher C. Kraft Jr. Mission Control Center in his honor in 2011, and Kraft Elementary School in Hampton, Virginia, near his hometown, was named for him.

Kraft published his autobiography Flight: My Life in Mission Control in 2001. The Mission Control Center building was named after him in 2011. When he received the National Space Trophy from the Rotary Club in 1999, the organization described him as "a driving force in the U.S. human space flight program from its beginnings to the Space Shuttle era, a man whose accomplishments have become legendary".

While some of these problems were due to mechanical failures, and responsibility for some of the others is still being debated, Kraft did not hesitate to assign blame to Carpenter, and continued to speak out about the mission for decades afterwards. His autobiography, written in 2001, reopened the issue; the chapter that dealt with the flight of Mercury-Atlas 7 was titled "The Man Malfunctioned". In a letter to The New York Times, Carpenter called the book "vindictive and skewed", and offered a different assessment of the reasons for Kraft's frustration: "in space things happen so fast that only the pilot knows what to do, and even ground control can't help. Maybe that's why he is still fuming after all these years."

In 2001, Kraft published his autobiography, Flight: My Life in Mission Control. It dealt with his life up until the end of the Apollo program, only briefly mentioning his time as center director in the epilogue. The New York Times review space writer Henry S. F. Cooper Jr. called it a "highly readable memoir", while the Kirkus Review summed it up as a "[s]nappy, highly detailed account of ... 20th century America's most dramatic technological achievement." Reviewers almost unanimously commented on the outspokenness of Kraft's storytelling, and his readiness to personally criticize those with whom he had disagreed. Cooper noted that Kraft "pull[s] no punches about some of [his colleagues'] shortcomings", and Kliatt magazine said that he "isn't afraid to name names".

The principles that Kraft had inculcated continued to have an impact at Johnson Space Center long after he retired. As Lunney reflected in 1998:

Kraft was portrayed by Stephen Root in the 1998 miniseries From the Earth to the Moon. He has been interviewed in numerous documentaries about the space program, including Apollo 13: To the Edge and Back (PBS). In 2018, he was portrayed in the film First Man by J. D. Evermore. In 2020, he was portrayed in the mini-series The Right Stuff by Eric Ladin.

The report was controversial even at the time of its publication. John Pike, space policy director for the Federation of American Scientists, commented that "the Kraft report is a recipe for disaster. They are basically saying dismantle the safety and quality assurance mechanisms set in place after the Challenger accident." NASA's Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel took issue with the report, saying in May 1995 that "the assumption that the Space Shuttle systems are now 'mature' smacks of a complacency which may lead to serious mishaps." Nonetheless, NASA accepted the recommendations of the report, and in November 1995, responsibility for shuttle operations was turned over to the United Space Alliance.

Later, Kraft consulted for companies such as IBM and Rockwell International. In 1994, he was appointed chairman of a panel to make NASA's Space Shuttle program more cost effective. The panel's controversial report, known as the Kraft report, recommended that NASA's Space Shuttle operations should be outsourced to a private contractor. It also recommended that NASA cut back on the organizational changes intended to improve safety that were made after the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster. This attracted even more critical comment after the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster.

After his retirement, Kraft served as a consultant for Rockwell International and IBM, and as director-at-large of the Houston Chamber of Commerce. In 1994, he was appointed chairman of the space shuttle management independent review team, a panel made up of leading aerospace experts, whose remit was to investigate how NASA could make its Space Shuttle program more cost effective. The panel's report, known as the Kraft report, was published in February 1995. It recommended that NASA's Space Shuttle operations should be outsourced to a single private contractor, and that "NASA should consider ... progression towards the privatization of the space shuttle." It criticized the effect of safety changes made by NASA after the Challenger disaster, saying that they had "created a safety environment that is duplicative and expensive." Fundamental to the report was the idea that the Space Shuttle had become "a mature and reliable system ... about as safe as today's technology will provide."

In April 1982, Kraft made what newspaper reports called a "surprise announcement" that he intended to step down as center director at the end of the year. He denied that his resignation had anything to do with the threatened possibility of Johnson Space Center losing its leading role in Space Shuttle operations or in the development of NASA's Space Station Freedom.

Kraft was eligible to retire in the early 1980s, but he chose not to take the option. He remained as center director in the status of a "reemployed annuitant," receiving his government pension, but still employed by NASA. In 1981 he had been involved in a conflict with the NASA Administrator and other top officials over the conduct of the STS-2 mission, and over issues relating to NASA organization and management. This contributed to making his position at NASA more tenuous.

In 1969, Kraft was named deputy director of the Manned Spacecraft Center (MSC). On January 14, 1972, he became the director of the MSC, replacing Gilruth, for whom Kraft had worked since his arrival at Langley in 1945. Space commentator Anthony Young has described Kraft as a "superb successor" to Gilruth, second only to him in the history of center directors.

Kraft received numerous awards and honors for his work. At the end of the Mercury program, he was invited to attend a ceremony in the White House Rose Garden, where he received the NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal from President John F. Kennedy and Administrator of NASA James E. Webb. "None of us have many days in our lives like that one," Kraft remembered. The NASA Distinguished Service Medal was awarded to him twice in 1969 (for Apollo 8 and Apollo 11), in 1981 for the Space Shuttle, and in 1982 as a special award.

As the director of Flight Operations, Kraft was closely involved in planning the broad outlines of the program. He was one of the first NASA managers to become involved in the decision to send Apollo 8 on a circumlunar flight. Due to problems with Lunar Module development in 1968, NASA faced the possibility of a full Apollo test mission being delayed until 1969. As a substitute, George Low, the manager of the Apollo Spacecraft Program Office, came up with the idea of assigning a new mission profile to Apollo 8, one that could be flown without the lunar module. The idea was discussed in early August at a meeting between Low, Kraft, Gilruth and Deke Slayton:

On Christmas Eve, 1968, Apollo 8 went into orbit around the Moon. Only ten years earlier, Kraft had joined Gilruth's newly founded Space Task Group. Now, the two men sat together in Mission Control, reflecting on how far they had come. Around them, the room was filled with cheers, but Kraft and Gilruth celebrated more quietly.

With the beginning of the Apollo program, Kraft expected to resume at Mission Control. He would have been lead flight director on the first crewed Apollo mission (later known as Apollo 1), scheduled to launch in early 1967. On January 27, 1967, the three crew members were killed in a fire during a countdown test on the pad. At the time, Kraft was in Mission Control in Houston, listening in on the Cape test conductor's voice loop. There was nothing anyone could do; before the crew at the pad could get the door open, the three astronauts were dead, having been overcome by toxic gases. Kraft was asked by Betty Grissom, the widow of astronaut Gus Grissom, to be one of the pallbearers at Grissom's funeral at Arlington National Cemetery, Virginia.

After the Apollo 1 fire in 1967, Kraft had reluctantly concluded that his responsibilities as a manager would keep him from serving as a flight director on the next crewed mission, Apollo 7, and on missions thereafter. Henceforth his involvement in the Apollo program would be at a higher level.

He won the Distinguished Citizen Award, given to him by the city of Hampton, Virginia in 1966; the John J. Montgomery Award in 1963; the ASME Medal in 1973; and the Goddard Memorial Trophy, awarded by the National Space Club, and the Roger W. Jones Award for Executive Leadership in 1979. In 1999, he was awarded the National Space Trophy from the Rotary National Award for Space Achievement Foundation, which described him as "a driving force in the U.S. human space flight program from its beginnings to the Space Shuttle era, a man whose accomplishments have become legendary".

Kraft was a household name in America throughout the 1960s. He appeared on the cover of the August 27, 1965, issue of Time, profiled as the "Conductor in a Command Post". In the article, he compared himself to Christopher Columbus, and displayed what the magazine described as "an almost angry pride" in his work. "We know a lot more about what we have to do than he did" Kraft said. "And we know where we're going." The article described Kraft's role in the Gemini 5 mission, and drew on his frequent comparisons of his position as flight director with that of an orchestra conductor.

After John Glenn's flight, Kraft had vowed that he would no longer allow his decisions as flight director to be overruled by anyone outside Mission Control. The mission rules, whose drafting had been overseen by Kraft, stated that "the flight director may, after analysis of the flight, choose to take any necessary action required for the successful completion of the mission." For Kraft, the power that the flight director held over every aspect of the mission extended to his control over the actions of the astronauts. In his 1965 interview with Time, he stated:

Mercury-Atlas 6, the February 20, 1962, flight of John Glenn, was a testing experience both for Mission Control and for Kraft. Space historians Charles Murray and Catherine Bly Cox described it as "the single event that decisively shaped Flight Operations". The mission was the first orbital flight by an American, and unfolded normally until Glenn began his second orbit. At that point Kraft's systems controller, Don Arabian, reported that telemetry was showing a "Segment 51" indicator. This suggested that the capsule's landing bag, which was meant to deploy upon splashdown in order to provide a cushion, might have deployed early. Kraft believed that the Segment 51 indicator was due to faulty instrumentation rather than to an actual early deployment. If he was wrong, it would mean that the capsule's heat shield, which fitted on top of the landing bag, was now loose. A loose heat shield could cause the capsule to burn up during re-entry.

In 1957, the Russian flight of Sputnik 1 prompted the United States to accelerate its fledgling space program. 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 Langley employees such as Kraft. Even before NASA began its official existence in October, Kraft was invited by Gilruth to become a part of a new group that was working on the problems of putting a man into orbit. Without much hesitation, he accepted the offer. When the Space Task Group was officially formed on November 5, Kraft became one of the original 33 personnel (25 of them engineers) to be assigned. This marked the beginning of America's man-in-space program, which came to be called Project Mercury.

Although he enjoyed his work, Kraft found it increasingly stressful, especially since he did not consider himself to be a strong theoretician. In 1956, he was diagnosed with an ulcer and started thinking about a change of career.

In 1950, Kraft married Betty Anne Kraft (née Turnbull) whom he had met in high school. They had two children, Gordon and Kristi-Anne. In his autobiography, Kraft acknowledged the sacrifices that his family had made as a result of his work for NASA, saying that "I was ... more of a remote authority figure to Gordon and Kristi-Anne than a typical American father."

Following his 1944 graduation from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University with a degree in aeronautical engineering, Kraft was hired by the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), the predecessor organization to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). He worked for over a decade in aeronautical research and in 1958 joined the Space Task Group, a small team entrusted with the responsibility of putting America's first man in space. Assigned to the flight operations division, Kraft became NASA's first flight director. He was on duty during America's first crewed spaceflight, first crewed orbital flight, and first spacewalk. At the beginning of the Apollo program, Kraft retired as a flight director to concentrate on management and mission planning. In 1972, he became director of the Manned Spacecraft Center (later Johnson Space Center), following his mentor Robert R. Gilruth, and held the position until his retirement in 1982.

In September 1941, Kraft began his studies at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech) and became a member of the Corps of Cadets. The United States entered World War II in December 1941, and he attempted to enlist in the United States Navy as a V-12 aviation cadet, but was rejected because of a burned right hand that he had suffered at age three. He graduated in December 1944 with a Bachelor of Science degree in aeronautical engineering.

In the 1940s, NACA was a research and development organization, devoted to cutting-edge aeronautical research. At the Langley Research Center, advanced wind tunnels were used to test new aircraft designs, and studies were taking place on new concepts such as the Bell X-1 rocket plane. Kraft was assigned to the flight research division, where Robert R. Gilruth was then head of research. His work with NACA included the development of an early example of gust alleviation systems for aircraft flying in turbulent air. This involved compensating for variations in the atmosphere by automatically deflecting the control surfaces. He investigated wingtip vortices, and discovered that they, and not prop-wash, are responsible for most of the wake turbulence in the air that trails flying aircraft.

Kraft had been an avid golfer ever since he was introduced to the game in the 1940s by his friend and NASA colleague Sig Sjoberg. He cited the good golfing as a reason for staying in Houston after his retirement.

Christopher Columbus Kraft Jr. (February 28, 1924 – July 22, 2019) was an American aerospace and NASA engineer who was instrumental in establishing the agency's Mission Control Center and shaping its organization and culture. His protégé Glynn Lunney said in 1998: "the Control Center today ... is a reflection of Chris Kraft".

Christopher Columbus Kraft Jr. was born in Phoebus, Virginia, on February 28, 1924. He was named after his father, Christopher Columbus Kraft, who was born in New York City in 1892 near the newly renamed Columbus Circle. Kraft's father, the son of Bavarian immigrants, had found his name an embarrassment, but passed it along to his son nonetheless. In later years, Kraft—as well as other commentators—would consider it peculiarly appropriate. Kraft commented in his autobiography that, with the choice of his name, "some of my life's direction was settled from the start". His mother, Vanda Olivia (née Suddreth), was a nurse. As a boy, Kraft played in an American Legion drum-and-bugle corps and became the state champion bugler. He went to school in Phoebus, where the only school went to the ninth grade and attended Hampton High School. He was a keen baseball player and continued to play the sport in college; one year he had a batting average of 0.340.