Flight: My Life in Mission Control

I had read this book before when loaned to me by a co-worker when we worked on the Space Shuttle Program - but I had to return it. When Chris Kraft passed away recently I searched extensively to purchase this wonderful book. Sadly, on the book sites (all of them) used copies were selling for between $250.00 to over $400.00. I kept searching until I found your site - and purchased my most favorite and true account of our Space Program in the USA. In fact, it was not a used copy - but brand new - I was thrilled when it arrived in the mail. Will be reading it again and saving it for posterity! There was nothing about the book that I disliked. The characters were all named along with stories about their adventures. Anyone who likes reading about our American Space Program, or worked on the program should read this one. There are several other books akin to this one but - FLIGHT - My Life In Mission Control by Chris Kraft - is the best of the best! I love your site - great books, priced so the average person can afford a wonderful read - will shop with you more often. You ARE a 5-star company!

Chris Kraft sure is no unknown to everybody interested in manned spaceflight. After studying at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute in the early 1940s he went to Langley as an aeronautical engineer. He was one of the initial members of the Space Task Group, the nucleus of what was to become the rapid growing Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston (now known as Johnson Space Center or JSC). Mr Kraft was NASA's first flight director supervising all Mercury and several Gemini missions. Later he went up the management ladder and eventually even became center director of the JSC. Now, here's his first book: "Flight - My Life in Mission Control". Here he is telling the story of his life from childhood until Apollo's final mission to the moon in 1972.At first glance "Flight" may look like a requital with respect to everybody who ever was on the wrong side of Chris Kraft or his supervisor, mentor and friend Dr. Robert R. Gilruth. But in taking a closer look it becomes more and more obvious: this must be one of the debriefings Mr Kraft is talking about in this great book. Complete honesty towards every person attending the meetings, and especially the ones who screwed up. No hiding of facts. No mercy. That proved itself to be the best way to learn from mistakes. So, although the contents of this book may not be easy to swallow for some of its readers, it certainly is a great source of knowledge for the majority of them. How many problems had to be solved in order to put man in space. And how many hinderances had to be overcome in order to win the space race and finally land man on the moon and return them safely to earth. Chris Kraft is describing many of these problems and hinderances as well as their solution.The fact that this book is ending with Apollo 17 certainly has been the right choice: This is the point where we have to pick up nowadays in order to continue the unfinished work. "Our work is still unfinished." That's how Gene Kranz put it in the epilogue of his book about the same theme. But I don't want to play off "Flight" against "Failure Is Not an Option" written by Gene Kranz. My recommendation: read 'em both. And remember: we are able to learn a lot from both men. But eventually it is our task to continue the story people like them began. Mars is still waiting out there.Well, there are some typographical errors in this book. And I would have preferred to read the story in Chris Kraft's own words instead of those of a ghostwriter. And, Mr Kraft, I don't feel that Gene Kranz is "stiff". I rather perceive him to have a very disciplined and focused mind and this is also the reason why Gene is so "quick and smart that it was sometimes scary to remember that he was human." (p. 316) Besides this, in my opinion "Flight: My Life in Mission Control" is really a great book.

The short summary - buy this book if you were around and interested in the early years of the space program. It is well written and makes you glad guys like Chris Kraft were there.The good - Kraft is a straight shooter about the early days of Project Mercury. You may not agree with his honest and sometimes brutal characterizations, but unlike most of the wide-eyed, content-free pabulum written on this subject, he tells you exactly what he thought.The better - There's a clear undercurrent of reflection and regret about his choices about his family throughout the book. At the same time he made a conscious decision that his job was more important than family. To be honest, given his personality of relentless execution, process and discipline it was interesting to hear and undercurrent of some wistful remorse. The bad - The issue of less than honest disclosure by NASA is one of Kraft's legacies. While Kraft is unflinching honest in his personnel characterizations, he is still dodging some of the original cover-ups that he and NASA perpetuated. As "Flight" he was first to know that Space motion sickness (SMS) was a widespread phenomenon during Apollo and more than likely earlier in Gemini. Yet for years any inkling that half of our astronauts were throwing up during the first few days of zero g was simply covered up to the general public. His antipathy to doctors makes it pretty clear that he wasn't going to let "them" embarrass his boys. Second, when the Air Force cancelled its Manned Orbiting Laboratory (MOL) a few of the department of defense experiments got shifted to Gemini. 35 years after the fact and not a mention. Three decades later NASA withheld the on-orbit flight log Bill Shepard of the Expedition One crew - a log he meant to be shared in real-time - all because of some unflattering comments Shepard made about - you guessed it - Mission Control. It wasn't until Bill landed that NASA released a heavily redacted version that made the log look like something out of the Soviet space progam circa 1965. The insight that this book provides is that NASA's long dysfunctional PR organization and culture can be traced back to Kraft's engineering mentality and thin skin about press people who didn't "get it." Yet no one in the agency ever understood that this myopic view of the public's interest is what has drained enthusiasm from the program.The worse - Incredibly Kraft's ten years when he took over Gilruths job, as director of the Manned Spacecraft Center doesn't warrant more than two pages. Given that some hold him responsible for canceling the last 4 Apollo flights and dismantling the programs he had worked on, you can understand his reticence. He does manages to blame Congress and the American people, which makes his lack of personal introspection about his role and decisions ever the more suspect. Summary: this book is one of the better "I was there" books about the space program. Buy it.

Christopher Columbus Kraft, Jr., was one of the key players behind the beginnings of what was to become the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Through this book he details his experiences through NASA's predecessor, the NACA, where he and other engineers and technicians tested aircraft and flight hardware. Then he became one of the original members of the Space Task Group, which helped to organize America's first manned space efforts. It is clear through his retelling of this period that the STG's efforts to put the first human in space was truly a "crash program," and its members had to learn by doing. Kraft's work in designing mission control also was very important, becaue of course the mission control center has become the backbone of America's human spaceflight program ever since its beginnings. As the book continues, Kraft is candid and clear in the description of his involvement in the race to the moon-he describes his elation at Alan Shepard's fifteen minute suborbital flight, and his frustration at Scott Carpenter's subpar performance on the second Mercury orbital flight in May 1962. The book provides many of his experiences and thoughts in the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs as NASA gained more experience in sending astronauts into orbit, and eventually as Neil A. Armstrong stepped from the lunar module Eagle and onto the surface of the moon on July 20, 1969. I've read both this book and Failure is Not An Option, by Apollo flight director Gene Kranz, and while both books are good, I think this one is better written and more candid.

While I really liked Gene Kranz's book on his experiences in Mission Control and felt that his was a five star book, Chris Kraft's book is orders of magnitude better. Chris Kraft describes in great detail his career at NASA, its predecessor NACA and all the people involved in setting up mission control and getting America to the Moon. He tells it like it was and he's not afraid to criticize (or praise) the many players within NASA and its contractors. Through out the book, the reader gets the impression that Kraft truly enjoyed his job, even with the 70 to 80 hour weeks, and believes in the dream of exploring the solar system and the universe.The book begins with Kraft's childhood on the Virginia shores of the Atlantic and the factors that ultimately shaped his future. Due to a childhood accident he is unable to fight in World War II and instead ends up becoming an engineer at NACA (National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics) helping to solve aerodynamic problems of many aircraft. At NACA he distinguishes himself by solving many complex flight problems, some of which are still used today. It is here that he meets many of the people who will become the driving force behind the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs, such as Walt Williams and Bob Gilruth. Once the Russians launch Sputnik, he becomes one of a select few of 36 people who form the Space Task Group. This group becomes the core of all manned space flight projects up to the Space Shuttle program. This group developed the Mercury capsule, mission control and selected the Original Seven astronauts. He becomes the Flight Director for the Mercury program and part of the Gemini program. As the space program expands, the group grows quite large and moves to Houston, TX to form the Manned Spacecraft Center (now the Johnson Space Center). Mid-way through the Gemini program he gives up his position as a Flight Director and worked on getting Apollo to the moon.So much has been written about the Apollo missions to the Moon, that this book was a breath of fresh air. Approximately half of this book is devoted to the Mercury and Gemini programs and how these often ignored projects played an extremely important role in getting America to the Moon. This book is loaded many great nuggets about the space program and Kraft's life. For example, he helps subdue a hijacker, he's one of only a few that criticizes Wernher Von Braun (and not for his Nazi past) and several of the Original Mercury Seven Astronauts and tells how and why Neil Armstrong was selected to be the first man on the moon. But all in all, Kraft continually points out that it was teamwork that got the space program over many hurdles and to the moon. Those who were not non-team players, such as Mercury astronaut Scott Carpenter, were eventually eased out of the program.It is important to note that all the proceeds from this book go to a college scholarship fund for the children of Johnson Space Center employees.

Anyone who is familiar with the numerous television documentaries about the early years at NASA knows about Chris Kraft. NASA's original flight controller, Kraft takes the reader on the journey of his amazing life story from a small town in Virginia to the top levels of management at NASA's Johnson Space Center. The reader will come away with an amazing appreciation for the contributions that Kraft gave to this nation as well as the numerous other unsung heroes that helped America get to the moon. As NASA's original flight conroller, Kraft was personally present for the most memorable moments in the history of space exploration including Alan Shepard's first trip into space in 1961 and John Glenn's historic orbital flight in 1962. Kraft takes the reader behind the scenes and shows what was really going on inside NASA that the public never knew about. The story he tells is amazing. The best part of this book is that Kraft acknowledges that the race to the moon was a team effort where everyone including managment, astronauts, mission control and contracters all contributed to this historic effort. Kraft was part of the story from the beginning and anyone interested in the least about the greatest story of the 20th century should and needs to read this fine book. It is well written, candid and an easy read.