Kranz, Gene

Krantz was born in Toledo , Ohio . I entered the Catholic school there. His father, Leo Peter Krantz, was the son of a German immigrant, and served as a physician during World War I. In 1940 , when Eugene was seven years old, he died. Kranz has two older sisters - Louise and Helen.

His fascination with space flight fantasies can be traced in a report on “the design and capabilities of interplanetary rockets,” which he wrote while studying at school. In 1954, Krantz graduated from a military college at the University of St. Louis , where he received the rank of second lieutenant of the US Air Force reserve command. A year later, he studied piloting at a school of pilots at the Lackland Air Force Base in Texas . Eugene soon married Martha Caden, the daughter of Mexican immigrants who fled Mexico during the Mexican Revolution . Then he was sent to Korea for flying on the F-86 near the demilitarized zone .

After a business trip to Korea, Kranz dropped out of the Air Force and joined McDonnell Aircraft , based in St. Louis , where he researched and tested a new class of ground-to-air and air-to-ground guided missiles.

After completing research trials in St. Louis, Krantz resigned from the McDonnell Douglas Corporation aircraft manufacturing company and joined the Space Task Force, set up on November 5, 1958 from the Langley and Lewis Centers, with 35 members. This group was preparing for future manned space flights. In 1960, Kranz was appointed head of flight operations control systems for the Mercury-1 mission as part of the first US manned space program, Mercury. In the future, Krantz played this role for all unmanned and manned flights of the Mercury program , including the Mercury-3 and Mercury-6 missions, which delivered the first Americans to suborbital space flight and into orbit of the Earth, respectively.

After the Mercury-6 mission , Krantz was promoted to deputy flight director. He stayed in this position for the remaining three flights under the Mercury program, as well as the first three flights under the Gemini program. The flight of Gemini 4 was already under the direction of Gene Kranz. In this flight, the US astronaut Edward White was the first to enter outer space . After the program, Gemini Krantz was the director of flights on the odd Apollo missions, including the first manned spacecraft of the Apollo series Apollo 7 and Apollo 9 . Gene Kranz served as flight director for the Apollo 11 mission, at the time the Eagle lunar module landed on the moon's surface on July 20, 1969 .

Apollo 13

Gene Kranz has gained widespread fame as a leading flight leader during the Apollo 13 mission. The Kranz team was on duty when, on the third day of the flight, an oxygen cylinder exploded on the ship and two of the three available fuel cell batteries failed, which provided power to the crew compartment of the command module. The competent actions of the Kranz team aimed at limiting the consumption of consumables of the spacecraft ( oxygen , electricity and water ), and four corrections to the flight path of the spacecraft allowed the astronauts to return safely to Earth . Krantz and his team, as well as astronauts for their courage and exceptionally high professional work, were awarded the highest civilian award in the United States - the Medal of Freedom ^[3] .

End of career

Krantz remained the flight director until the Apollo 17 mission, and then in 1974 he was appointed deputy director for space mission management at NASA , becoming director in 1983 . Gene Kranz quit NASA in 1994 after successfully completing the STS-61 mission to the Hubble telescope in 1993 .

Krantz and his wife Martha have six children: Carmen (born 1958 ), Lucy (born 1959 ), Joan Francis (born 1961 ), Mark (born 1963 ), Brigitte (born 1964 ), and Jean-Marie ( p. 1966 ). They live in Texas .

Ed Harris , who played Kranz in 1995 in the movie Apollo 13 , was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. In this film, the role of Gene Kranz in one of the most dramatic moments of space exploration is most vividly depicted. The film was directed by Ron Howard, based on the book "Lost Moon" ( Lost Moon ) by Jim Lovell and Jeffrey Kluger .

Dan Butler , a charismatic actor better known for his role as Brisko's Bulldog in the Fraser sitcom, played Kranz in the mini-series From Earth to the Moon .

Matt Frewer played Kranz in 1996 in the TV series Apollo 11.

Gene Kranz was also the hero of several documentaries on the History Channel and Discovery Channel .

Mike Ciannilli played Flight Director (Kranz) in 2011 in the movie Transformers 3: The Dark Side of the Moon .

• American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics: Lawrence Sperry Prize , 1967 .
• Medal "For Exceptional Merit" - 1969 and 1970 .
• Fleming Award - “One of Ten Outstanding Young People in Public Service” in 1970
• Outstanding Service Medal (NASA) - 1970 , 1982 , and 1988
• Medal "For Outstanding Leadership" - 1973 , 1993
• Presidential Medal of Freedom
• Winner of the Apollon 13 Crew Safe Return Award , 1995

• Failure Is Not an Option: Mission Control from Mercury to Apollo 13 and Beyond Gene Kranz, Simon and Schuster, 2000, ISBN 9780743200790
• Lost Moon by James Lovell ( ISBN 0-671-53464-5 )
• The Last Man on the Moon: Astronaut Eugene Cernan and America's Race in Space by Gene Cernan ( ISBN 0-312-19906-6 )
• Thirteen: The Apollo Flight That Failed by Henry SF Cooper, Jr. ( ISBN 0-8018-5097-5 )

• Rotary National Award for Space Achievement (RNASA) | 2007 National Space Trophy Recipient
• Space Lifeguard: An Interview with Gene Kranz from Space.com posted 2000-04-11
• Eugene F. KRANZ long interview conducted by Rebecca Wright et al. of the Johnson Space Center Oral History Project, nasa.gov, 1999
• "Missing out on outer space" Op-Ed written by Kranz for The Hill . June 12, 2007.
• (link unavailable) Smithsonian Magazine article about Gene Kranz's Vest