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“The fire-in-the-hole abort was the most critical test of the mission and one we had to accomplish successfully prior to a manned mission.” Gene Kranz – Flight Director Apollo 5
Apollo 5 Mission Patch
Lunar Module 1 delivered to the Cape
LM 1 mated to the spacecraft lunar module adapter
LM 1 inside adapter being hoisted to the booster
Apollo 5 on the launch pad
Apollo 5 lift off
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As Procedures Officer, Kranz was put in charge of integrating Mercury Control with the Launch Control Team at Cape Canaveral, Florida, writing the “Go/NoGo” procedures that allowed missions to continue as planned or be aborted, along with serving as a sort of switchboard operator using teletype between the control center at Cape Canaveral and the agency’s fourteen tracking stations and two tracking ships located across the globe.
Kranz & his F86 Saber Cat
Kranz at his console in 1965
Kranz and his teacher Chris Kraft
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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, following the path of his mentor Robert Gilruth.
Kraft in Mission Control for Gemini 5
Ad. Abhau, Robert Thompson, and Kraft
Kraft with his new flight Directors
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President Kennedy proposed the manned lunar landing as the focus of the US space program but, at the time of his address, only one American, Alan B. Shepard, Jr. had been into space, on a suborbital lob shot lasting 15 minutes. No rocket launch vehicle was available for a lunar voyage and there was no agreed upon method for placing any kind of spacecraft safely on the lunar surface and getting it back to the earth. Nor was there agreement within NASA itself on how it should be done.
Astronauts leave the spacecraft to investigate the lunar surface.
The return vehicle takes off from the moon.
The reentry vehicle begins to enter the atmosphere after jettisoning the propulsion unit.
