Heroes: Flight Director Gene Kranz

Spaceflight; Man's greatest achievement and the final frontier. For over forty years, hundreds of men and women have dedicated their lives to the pursuit of extra terrestrial exploration but one man stands head and shoulders above the rest. Flight Director Gene Kranz.

It was under Kranz's watch that NASA regrouped and restructured itself after the tragedy of Apollo 1 but he is probably best known for his role in directing the successful Mission Control team efforts to save the crew of Apollo 13. In 1969 when NASA achieved its long term goal of a manned lunar landing with Apollo 11, Kranz was in control. There's a lot to be learned about integrity and leadership from the conduct and attributes of Flight Director Gene Kranz

Outer space is a dangerous place. Life and death decisions need to be made with incomplete information in a split second. The mission's success and the safety of the astronauts depend on these moments. Gene Kranz had the prized ability to swiftly and correctly analyse critical problems. He was able to stay calm and rapidly piece together scattered and sparse information into a plan that would ultimately become a solution. A trained pilot and engineer, Kranz was only 31 years old when he became NASA’s Flight Director and led a crew of recent college graduates with an unrivalled dedication to make the project a success. Kranz trusted his team, and encouraged them to voice their concerns, and give their honest assessments of the situation at hand. 

On January 27th, 1967, during an Apollo launch rehearsal exercise, three astronauts - Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee died in a oxygen fuelled cabin fire. The following Monday, Kranz addressed his team, with what has become known as the Kranz Dictum. Though aimed at the Mission Control team, the address is a powerful and moving example of Krans's honesty, will and integrity as a leader and demonstrates his sense of total personal accountability. The clarity of the demands laid out here dictate a new exacting standard that he and those who worked under him would hold themselves to.

”Spaceflight will never tolerate carelessness, incapacity, and neglect. Somewhere, somehow, we screwed up. It could have been in design, build, or test. Whatever it was, we should have caught it. We were too gung ho about the schedule and we locked out all of the problems we saw each day in our work. Every element of the program was in trouble and so were we. The simulators were not working, Mission Control was behind in virtually every area, and the flight and test procedures changed daily. Nothing we did had any shelf life. Not one of us stood up and said, ‘Dammit, stop!’ I don’t know what Thompson’s committee will find as the cause, but I know what I find. We are the cause! We were not ready! We did not do our job. We were rolling the dice, hoping that things would come together by launch day, when in our hearts we knew it would take a miracle. We were pushing the schedule and betting that the Cape would slip before we did.

From this day forward, Flight Control will be known by two words: ‘Tough’ and ‘Competent.’ Tough means we are forever accountable for what we do or what we fail to do. We will never again compromise our responsibilities. Every time we walk into Mission Control we will know what we stand for. Competent means we will never take anything for granted. We will never be found short in our knowledge and in our skills. Mission Control will be perfect. When you leave this meeting today you will go to your office and the first thing you will do there is to write ‘Tough and Competent’ on your blackboards. It will never be erased. Each day when you enter the room these words will remind you of the price paid by Grissom, White, and Chaffee. These words are the price of admission to the ranks of Mission Control.”

When the first explosion occurred onboard Apollo 13, every member of Kranz's team was desperately trying to make sense of the tide of information. Even as the astronauts lost oxygen and electrical power, Kranz was calm and collected in directing his team: “Okay now, let’s everybody keep cool. Let’s solve the problem, but let’s not make it any worse by guessing.” This cool headed approach is one of an experienced leader with the ability to think clearly and not show any fear or sense of panic that he might be feeling. Kranz's cool headed approach gave those around them the confidence to stay level-headed too. Kranz was always in control of himself and his team and he always remained in the moment.

True leaders always push forward.