50 years ago, on the way to the Moon…
On April 3, 1968, Director of Flight Operations at the Manned Spacecraft Center (MSC) Christopher C. Kraft, Jr., announced the lead flight directors for the initial two crewed Apollo missions planned for later that year. Glynn S. Lunney would be the flight director for Apollo 7, the first Earth orbit test flight of the Apollo Command and Service Module, and Eugene F. Kranz would direct Apollo 8, the maiden crewed flight of the Saturn 5 Moon rocket which at the time was planned to carry out the first piloted test of the Lunar Module (LM) in Earth orbit. Both Lunney and Kranz had distinguished themselves as flight directors in challenging Gemini and early uncrewed Apollo missions.
Glynn Lunney (in white shirt at left) monitors the launch of Apollo 4 from the Mission Operations Control Room.
Credits: NASA
Glynn Lunney grew up in Pennsylvania and graduated from the University of Detroit in 1958 with a degree in aerospace engineering. While in college, he was a cooperative education student at the Lewis Research Center in Cleveland, OH, and accepted a position there after graduation. The next year he transferred to the Langley Research Center, Hampton, VA, and joined the Space Task Group (STG) as its youngest member. The STG was given the responsibility to create NASA’s human space flight program and Lunney was a member of the Flight Operations Division, responsible for generating procedures for Project Mercury. When the STG relocated to Houston, TX, and became the MSC, Lunney followed. He became NASA’s fourth flight director in 1964 and served in that capacity for Gemini missions 9 through 12 and for Apollo 201 (a suborbital uncrewed mission in February 1966) and Apollo 4, the first uncrewed test flight of the Saturn 5 in November 1967.
Gene Kranz makes a point during the Apollo 5 mission.
Credits: NASA
Gene Kranz grew up in Ohio and received his bachelor’s degree in aeronautical engineering from St. Louis University in 1954. After a tour in the Air Force that included flying F-86 Sabre jets in Korea, Kranz joined the McDonnell Aircraft Corporation. He began his NASA career in 1960 by joining the STG at Langley, then transferred to the MSC in Houston. Kranz served as flight director for Gemini missions 4 through 9 and Apollo 5, the first uncrewed test flight of the LM, in January 1968.
To read Glynn Lunney’s and Gene Kranz’s oral histories with the JSC History Office, please visit:
https://historycollection.jsc.nasa.gov/JSCHistoryPortal/history/oral_histories/LunneyGS/lunneygs.htm
https://historycollection.jsc.nasa.gov/JSCHistoryPortal/history/oral_histories/KranzEF/kranzef.htm