National Space Trophy
Winners
1987
Dr. Maxime Faget
1988
Hon. Don Fuqua
1989
V.Adm. Richard Truly, USN (Ret.)
1990
Dr. Lew Allen
1991
Dr. Aaron Cohen
1992
Dr. Norman Augustine
1993
Lt. Gen. Thomas Stafford, USAF (Ret.)
1994
E.C. “Pete” Aldridge
1995
Dan Goldin
1996
Capt. Robert L. Crippen, USN (Ret.)
1997
George W.S.Abbey
1998
Pres. George H.W. Bush
1999
Dr. Christopher C. Kraft, Jr.
2000
Capt. John W. Young, USN (Ret.)
2001
Tommy Holloway
2002
Dr. George E. Mueller
2003
Roy S. Estess
2004
Neil A. Armstrong
2005
Dr. Glynn S. Lunney
2006
Col. Eileen Collins, USAF (Ret.)
2007 Eugene F. "Gene" Kranz
2008 Capt. Eugene A. Cernan, USN (Ret.)
Profiles
of National Space Trophy Winners
1987
Dr. Maxime Faget
Portrait by Pat Rawlings/SAIC.
The first recipient of the National Space Trophy was
Dr. Maxime A. Faget, the
chief designer and engineering genius of Project Mercury, the first American
manned spacecraft. Dr. Faget was born in British
Honduras, graduated from Louisiana
State University,
and served as an officer in the Navy submarine service during WWII. After the
war, he joined the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, the predecessor
to NASA, at Langley Aeronautical Lab on Wallops
Island, Virginia.
At NACA, he worked on the design of the X-15, the first manned vehicle to reach Mach 6 and an altitude of over fifty miles. Dr. Faget
was one of the original 35 members of the Space Task Group that founded the NASA Johnson
Space Center
in Houston, Texas. He was the chief designer of the
Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo Command Module spacecraft. Dr. Faget
is often called the father of the space shuttle because his study of reusable
spacecraft led to the decision to develop that vehicle. Dr. Faget
retired in 1981 after a 35-year career that many credit with the success of the
American space program. He passed away October 9, 2004 at his home in Houston at the age of 83.
1988 Hon. Don Fuqua
Painting by Edward Diffenderfer.
The second recipient of the National Space Trophy was
the Honorable Don Fuqua, a Florida
Congressman who was one of the leading architects of the governmental framework
upon which the world’s greatest space program was built. Mr. Fuqua served in
the Army for two years, and then earned his degree in agricultural economics
from the University
of Florida. He was
elected to Congress in 1963, and gained firsthand knowledge of the U.S. Space
program as a member, and then Chairman (from
1971-1981) of the Subcommittee on Space Science and Applications. This
subcommittee played an important role in aiding President Kennedy’s commitment
to land men on the moon. Congressman Fuqua became Chairman of the full House
Science and Technology Committee in 1979, and through his leadership, insured
that vital technical programs were adequately funded. During his 12 terms in
Congress, Mr. Fuqua oversaw most of the nation’s civilian research and
development programs. From 1987 to 1998, he was the President of the Aerospace
Industries Association and served as a leading spokesman for the U.S. space
industry.
1989 V.Adm. Richard Truly, USN (Ret.)
Painting by Rick Johnson.
The 1989 recipient of the National Space Trophy was
US Navy Rear Admiral Richard H. Truly for his 20 years of distinguished
contributions to the space program, first as an astronaut, and then as an
administrator. Admiral Truly was born in Fayette, Mississippi,
and earned his engineering degree from Georgia Tech in 1959. As a Naval
aviator, he made more than 300 carrier landings and then became an instructor
at the Air Force Research Pilot School at Edwards Air Force Base in California. In 1965, he
was selected as a military astronaut and became a NASA astronaut in 1969. He
worked as a Capcom for all 3 Skylab flights in 1973
and the Apollo Soyuz mission in 1975. He was the pilot for the approach and
landing test of the Space Shuttle Enterprise in 1977, and of Columbia on STS-2 in 1981, the first reflight of a spacecraft. He was the commander of the Space
Shuttle Challenger for the STS-8 mission that made the first night launch and
landing in 1983. Admiral Truly left NASA that year to
be commander of the Naval Space Command in Dahlgren, Virginia.
A month after the Space Shuttle Challenger accident in 1986, Admiral Truly
returned to NASA as Administrator and oversaw the successful return to flight.
He left NASA in 1992 to be Director of the Georgia Tech Research Institute in Atlanta, Georgia.
1990 Dr. Lew Allen
Painting by Alan Chinchar.
Dr.
Lew Allen received the National Space Trophy in 1990
for rekindling the public’s interest in the solar system by overseeing, as
Director of the Jet Propulsion Lab in California,
a series of spectacular unmanned missions to the outer planets. Dr. Allen was
born in Miami, Florida,
graduated from West Point in 1946, and served
in the Strategic Air Command's 7th Bombardment Group at Carswell
Air Force Base. He received masters and doctorate degrees in physics from the University of Illinois in 1952 and ‘54. He rose to the
rank of General in the Air Force, eventually becoming the Air Force Chief of
Staff and member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. General Allen retired from the
Air Force and became the director of JPL and vice president of the California
Institute of Technology in 1982. There, he oversaw the teams responsible for
the Magellan Venus radar mapper, the Galileo mission
to Jupiter, the Voyager 1 flybys of Jupiter and Saturn, and the Voyager 2
flybys of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. Voyager 1 is the most distant manmade
object and carries a gold record 'greeting to the universe' reflecting life and culture on
Earth. Dr. Allen left JPL in 1990, and served as Chairman of
the Board of the Charles Stark Draper Lab in Boston, Massachusetts.
1991 Dr. Aaron Cohen
Portrait by Pat Rawlings/SAIC.
The 1991 recipient of the National Space Trophy was Aaron Cohen, then serving as the director of Johnson Space Center. Mr. Cohen was cited for his leadership in increasing America’s capabilities in space through safer and more efficient operation of the space shuttle. From Corsicana, Texas, Mr. Cohen received his degree in Mechanical Engineering from Texas A&M in 1952, and his Master's degree in Applied Mathematics from Stevens Institute of Technology in 1958. After serving in the Army, Mr. Cohen joined NASA in 1962 and played a key role in the success of all Apollo missions. From 1972 to 1982, he was manager of the Space Shuttle orbiter project, directing the orbiter's design, development, production, and first test flights. He served as Director of Research and Engineering and became JSC Center Director in 1986, after the Challenger disaster. Under his leadership, the shuttle returned safely to flight in 1988. Mr. Cohen was called to Washington, DC as Acting NASA Deputy Administrator in 1992, and then returned to JSC before retiring in 1993. Mr. Cohen served as the Zachry Professor of Engineering at Texas A&M until 2001.
1992 Dr. Norman Augustine
Portrait by John Solie.
Norman
R. Augustine received the 1992 National Space Trophy for his work as a guiding
force in our nation’s exploration of space. He served as Chairman of the
presidential advisory committee on the Future of the United States Space
Program that delivered its landmark report in December 1990. Mr. Augustine was
born in Denver, Colorado. He earned his degree in Aerospace
Engineering in 1957, and his Masters in 1959, both from Princeton.
Starting as Chief Engineer in 1958 with Douglas Aircraft Company, Mr. Augustine
moved to the Defense Department in 1965 as Assistant Director of Defense
Research and Engineering. In 1970, he returned to the private sector with LTV
Missiles and Space Company. He re-joined the government in 1973 as the
Assistant Secretary of the Army, and became Under Secretary of the Army in
1975. Mr. Augustine joined Martin Marietta in 1977, rising to CEO and Chairman.
When the company merged with Lockheed in 1995, he was named President, then
CEO, and later Chairman of the Board of Lockheed Martin. He retired in 1997,
and served as an engineering Professor at Princeton
until 1999. The author of numerous books on management, including the popular Augustine’s
Laws, he received the Medal of Technology from the President of the United States
in 1998.
1993 Lt. Gen. Thomas Stafford, USAF (Ret.)
Portrait by Alan Chinchar.
Lieutenant
General Thomas P. Stafford, USAF (retired) was the 1993 recipient of the
National Space Trophy for his contributions as an astronaut, administrator, and
space advisor over a span of three decades. General Stafford was born in Weatherford, Oklahoma.
He graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1952 and was an Air Force fighter
and test pilot. He joined NASA as an astronaut in 1962. He was the pilot for
Gemini 6 in 1965, and the commander for Gemini 9 the next year, both important
rendezvous missions. General Stafford commanded Apollo 10, the dress rehearsal
for the first moon landing in 1969. After that flight, he became head of the
astronaut office. He commanded the historic first Russian/American Apollo-Soyuz
mission in 1975. He left NASA later that year to command the Air Force Flight
Test Center, and in ‘78 became Deputy Chief of Staff, Research Development and
Acquisition, at Air Force Headquarters in D.C. He retired in 1979, and
co-founded the technical consulting firm of Stafford, Burke, and Hecker in Alexandria,
Virginia. In 1990, General
Stafford chaired a team to advise NASA on how to carry out President Bush's
vision of returning to the Moon and exploring Mars. Their report, "America at the
Threshold", influenced the course of the space program throughout the
1990’s.
1994 E.C. “Pete” Aldridge
Portrait by Edward Diffenderfer.
Edward “Pete” Aldrige, Jr.
was the recipient of the 1994 National Space Trophy for his foresight and
persuasive leadership on critical space policy issues. Mr. Aldridge was born in
Houston, Texas.
He got his engineering degree from Texas A&M in
1960, and his masters from Georgia Tech in ‘62. He began his career with
Douglas Aircraft in California
then joined the Department of Defense in 1967. He remained with the DoD except for a few years in the
‘70’s. In 1985, he trained as a payload specialist, but his flight was
cancelled after the Challenger accident in 1986. Soon afterwards, President
Reagan appointed Mr. Aldridge Secretary of the Air Force, where he initiated
the mixed fleet strategy of using the shuttle and expendable vehicles. From
1988 to ‘92, he was President of McDonnell Douglas. In ‘92 he became CEO of The
Aerospace Corporation, the position he held when he received the Rotary award
and until 2001, when he was named Under
Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics. He joined the
Board of Lockheed Martin in 2003. In 2004, he led the commission charged with
visualizing President’s Bush’s space policy.
1995 Dan Goldin
Painting by Alan Chinchar.
Daniel S. Goldin, the NASA
Administrator who advocated a, “faster, better, cheaper” way of doing business,
received the 1995 National Space Trophy for his passionate leadership and
fiscally responsible management of the space program. A native of New York City, Mr. Goldin received his degree in mechanical engineering from
the City College of New York. His first job was with NASA at what is now the Glenn Research
Center in Cleveland, Ohio.
After 5 years, he went to work for TRW in California, staying 25 years and rising to
the position of General Manager of the TRW Space & Technology Group. Dan Goldin became NASA Administrator in 1992, and launched a
series of management reforms, saving the government billions of dollars. He
initiated the Discovery program to reduce the development time and mission cost
of planetary probes, oversaw the redesign of the space station to include a new
partnership with the Russians, put together the team that repaired the Hubble
Space Telescope, and saw the shuttle program through its 20th
anniversary. Goldin left NASA in 2001.
1996 Capt. Robert L. Crippen, USN (Ret.)
Painting by Maurice Lewis.
Astronaut Robert L. Crippen
received the 1996 National Space Trophy for his pivotal role in returning the
shuttle to safe flight after the Challenger accident, and his leadership of
both the space shuttle program and Kennedy
Space Center.
From Beaumont, Texas,
Mr. Crippen earned his degree in aerospace
engineering from the University
of Texas in 1960. He was
a Navy pilot, an instructor with the Air Force, and selected for the USAF
Manned Orbiting Laboratory Program. He became an astronaut in 1969, and worked
on various programs while waiting 15 years to fly in space. He was the pilot on
the first space shuttle flight in 1981. In 1983, he commanded STS-7, the first
flight of 5 people, including the first American woman, Sally Ride. In 1984, he
commanded STS 41-C that retrieved and repaired the Solar Max Satellite, and STS
41-G that included the first spacewalk by an American woman, Kathy Sullivan.
Mr. Crippen became Space Shuttle director in 1990, and Director of Kennedy Space Center in Florida in 1992. During
his tenure, KSC launched 22 shuttle flights and 42 expendable rockets. He left
NASA in 1995, and became a Vice President with Lockheed Martin in Orlando, Florida.
He joined Thiokol Propulsion in Utah
in 1996, and served as President until retiring in 2001.
1997 George W.S. Abbey
Photo by J. Pamela Photography.
George
W. S. Abbey, then director of Johnson
Space Center,
received the National Space Trophy in 1997 for his dedication to the goals of
space exploration. Born in Seattle, George Abbey
graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1954, and earned a master's degree in
engineering from the U.S. Air Force Institute of Technology in Ohio in ‘59. An Air
Force pilot, Captain Abbey was detailed to NASA’s Apollo program in 1964. He
left the Air Force in ‘67 and served as technical assistant to the JSC
Director, and earned the Medal of Freedom for his role in Apollo 13 operations.
As Director of Flight Operations starting in ‘76, George Abbey oversaw the
early shuttle flights, and became Director of Flight Crew Operations in ‘83.
From ‘88 to ‘94, he worked at NASA Headquarters, and served as senior NASA
representative to the Synthesis Group, and as Senior Director, Civil Space
Policy, for the National Space Council. He became Deputy Director of JSC in
‘94, and was selected Center Director in ’96. During this time, JSC became the
lead center for shuttle and space station programs. Mr. Abbey became Senior
Assistant for International Issues in 2001, and retired in 2003.
1998 Pres. George H.W. Bush
Design by Frances W. Jones, Johnson Engineering.
Former President George H. W. Bush received the
National Space Trophy in 1998 for leading a golden era of space science that
included the Magellan mission to Venus, the Galileo mission to Jupiter, and the
Cosmic Background Explorer’s study of the early Universe. President Bush was
born in Milton, Massachusetts. The youngest Navy pilot when
he got his wings, he flew 58 combat missions in WWII. He got his degree from
Yale in ‘48, and began his political career as Chairman of the Harris County
Texas Republican Party in ‘63. He was elected to Congress in 1966 and served
two terms. He held many senior positions in government in the 1970’s including
UN Ambassador and Director of the CIA. While Vice President under Ronald
Reagan, he visited Mission Control in Houston,
and congratulated the STS-26 crew in California
on returning the shuttle to flight after the Challenger accident. As President
from ’89 to ‘93, he launched a new era in robotic exploration and began an
exchange of crews between the Russian Mir and American Shuttle programs.
On the 20th anniversary of Apollo 11’s landing, President Bush
proposed a return to the moon and a goal to land on Mars by 2019. President
Bush left office in ‘93 and settled in Houston.
1999 Dr. Christopher C. Kraft, Jr.
Portrait by Scott Medlock, Scott Medlock Studio, California.
Christopher C. Kraft, a driving force in the U.S. human
spaceflight program from its beginning to the space shuttle era, was the
recipient of the 1999 National Space Trophy. Born in Phoebus, Virginia,
Dr. Kraft graduated from Virginia Polytechnic in 1944. He joined NASA’s
predecessor at Langley Field in Virginia
the next year and spent fourteen years testing aircraft. When NASA formed in
‘58, Dr. Kraft was one of the 36 original members of the Space Task Group
developing Project Mercury. He created the engineering and operations
organization that designed and controlled the first human missions. Dr. Kraft
was the first Flight
Director, and held that position for all of Mercury, and the first seven
flights of Gemini. He was Director of Flight Operations through Apollo 12, and
then became
Deputy Director of what is now Johnson
Space Center.
He became Director in ‘71, playing a vital role in the success of the final Apollo
missions and the
first Space Shuttle flights. He retired in 1982 and served as a consultant and board
member of various Houston companies, as
director-at-large of the Houston Chamber of Commerce, and as a member of the
Board of Visitors at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.
His book, FLIGHT: My Life In Mission Control,
was published in 2001 and was a New York Times bestseller.
2000 Capt. John W. Young, USN (Ret.)
Painting by Robert McCall, McCall Studios Inc.
The only astronaut to fly Gemini, Apollo, and Shuttle
projects, John W. Young was the recipient of the National Space Trophy in 2000.
He was born in San Francisco, and graduated from
high school in Orlando.
John Young earned his degree from Georgia Tech in ‘52 and became a Navy test
pilot. In 1962, he set the world time-to-climb record in an F-4 Phantom. That
same year, Captain Young was selected as one of the second group of astronauts,
the “next nine.” The first of his class to fly, he joined Gus Grissom on the
first Gemini flight in 1965. He commanded Gemini 10 in 1966, reaching a record
475-mile altitude. He was the command module pilot of Apollo 10, and the first
to be alone in lunar orbit while his crewmates tested the lunar module. In
1972, he landed on the Moon, and drove the Apollo 16 rover over 16 miles during
three EVAs. John Young commanded the first space
shuttle flight in ‘81, and the first Spacelab mission, STS-9, in ‘83. He served
as Chief of the Astronaut Office from ’74 to ’87, and as Special Assistant to
the Director of JSC from ’87 to ’96. He became Associate Director, Technical,
in 1996, responsible for technical, operational, and safety oversight of NASA
programs at JSC.
2001 Tommy Holloway
Portrait by Pat Rawlings/SAIC.
The
2001 winner of the National Space Trophy was International Space Station Program
Manager Tommy Holloway. A native of Jasmine, Arkansas,
Mr. Holloway graduated from the University of Arkansas
with a degree in mechanical engineering and joined NASA in 1963. He was a
flight planner for Gemini and Apollo Flights at what is now the Johnson Space Center.
He served as a flight director for early Shuttle flights and became chief of
the Flight Directors’ Office in 1984, where he led an investigation into flight
operations after the Challenger accident. In 1989, he was named assistant director
for the Space Shuttle Program and then served as Deputy Manager for Program
Integration. He then became Director of the Phase I Program of Shuttle-Mir
dockings before being named Space Shuttle program manager in 1995. As shuttle
manager, he met his top 3 goals: fly safely, meet the schedule, and reduce
costs. In 1999, Mr. Holloway was named space station manager, responsible for a
civil service and contractor workforce of 20,000 people and a budget of $2.3
billion dollars. He retired in 2002.
2002 Dr. George E. Mueller
Portrait by Pat Rawlings/SAIC.
George E. Mueller, Ph.D. was chosen as the 2002
recipient of the National Space Trophy for his contributions to the Apollo,
Skylab, Space Shuttle, and commercial aerospace programs. Born in St. Louis, Missouri,
Dr. Mueller graduated from Purdue in 1940 and joined the staff at Bell Labs. In
‘46, he became a professor of engineering at Ohio State University. He joined Ramo Wooldridge in ’57, and worked on the Atlas, Titan,
Thor, and Minuteman ballistic missiles. He was project engineer for Pioneer 1,
the United States’
first successful space probe, and also for the Air Force SPAN satellite
tracking network. Dr. Mueller joined NASA as Associate Administrator for manned
space flight in 1963. He instituted the “all-up” approach to testing the Apollo
and Saturn hardware which allowed NASA to achieve the lunar landing before
1970. He left NASA in ‘69 to join General Dynamics. In 1971, he joined System
Development Corporation, serving as chairman, CEO and president. From ‘83 to
’95, he was president of Jojoba Propagation Laboratories and also ran his own
consulting firm. He was president of the AIAA from ’69 to ’82, and president of
the IAA from ’82 to ’97. In 1995, Dr. Mueller took over as CEO of Kistler Aerospace, a firm developing a reusable commercial
launch vehicle.
2003 Roy S. Estess
Portrait by Pat Rawlings/SAIC.
The
2004 recipient of the National Space Trophy was Roy S. Estess
for his unyielding dedication, sustained leadership, and commitment to
excellence in advancing America’s
space program. A native of Tyler Town, Mississippi, Mr. Estess
earned his degree in aerospace engineering from Mississippi
State University,
and went to work on jet fighters at Brookley Air
Force Base in Mobile, Alabama. Mr. Estess
joined NASA in 1966 as a test engineer on the Saturn V at the Mississippi Test
Facility, later named Stennis Space
Center. He became head of
the Applications Engineering Office and helped convince NASA Headquarters to
test the space shuttle engines in Mississippi.
From 1980 to 1989, Estess served as Deputy Director,
and became Director of Stennis in 1989. He was
instrumental in establishing Stennis as the lead
center for rocket propulsion testing. Mr. Estess
served in Washington, DC,
as Special Assistant to the NASA Administrator from 1992 to ‘93, and as Acting
Director of the Johnson
Space Center
from Feb. 2001 to April 2002 during some of the most challenging space flights
in history. He returned to Stennis and retired in
August 2002.
2004
Neil A. Armstrong
Portrait by Pat Rawlings/SAIC.
Neil
A. Armstrong was the 2004 winner of the National Space Trophy for being the
first explorer to land a manned spacecraft on the Moon and the first human to
step on its surface. He was born in Wapakoneta,
Ohio, and received his pilot’s
license on his 16th birthday. He went to Korea in 1950 and flew 78 combat
missions. He got his engineering degree from Purdue in 1955,
and his masters’ from the University
of Southern California in
1970. Neil Armstrong joined the predecessor of NASA at what is now Glenn Research
Center in Cleveland, Ohio
in 1955. He transferred to California
in ‘58 and
flew seven X-15 flights, going over Mach 5 and climbing above 200,000 feet. Selected as an astronaut in ‘62, he commanded Gemini
8, the first
successful docking in space. He then commanded Apollo 11, fulfilling President
Kennedy’s goal of putting men on the moon and returning them safely to Earth.
On July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong took “one small step for man, one giant leap
for mankind.” He left NASA in 1971 and taught at the University
of Cincinnati until 1979.
He served on the National Commission on Space in ‘85, and on the President’s
Commission on the Space Shuttle Challenger Accident in 1986. Neil Armstrong retired from EDO Corporation in 2002, and
remains the world symbol for manned space flight exploration.
2005
Dr. Glynn S. Lunney
Portrait by Pat Rawlings/SAIC.
The 2005 National Space Trophy winner is former Apollo flight
director and Shuttle manager, Glynn S. Lunney. Born
in Old Forge, Pennsylvania, Lunney graduated from the University of Detroit
in 1958. He worked at the Lewis (now Glenn) Research Center
in Cleveland, Ohio
and transferred to Langley in Virginia in 1958. Lunney
joined the Space Task Group in 1959 and moved to Houston in 1962. He was a flight director for Gemini and Apollo and head of the Flight
Director’s Office starting in 1968. He received an honorary Doctorate from the University of Scranton in 1971. In 1972, Lunney
became manager of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project (ASTP), and
Lunney also managed the Apollo Spacecraft Office
starting in 1973. From late 1975 to 1981, Lunney served
at NASA Headquarters, twice as deputy associate administrator for Space Flight,
and then as acting associate administrator for Space Transportation Operations.
In 1981, Lunney was selected manager of the Shuttle program and returned to Houston. Lunney left NASA in 1985 and became President of Rockwell's Satellite Systems Division. After a tour at Rockwell Space Systems Division, he returned to Houston in 1989 to lead Rockwell's Space Operations Co. that became part of United Space Alliance (USA) in
1995. Lunney was VP and Program Manager
of USA’s Space Flight Operations contract until his
retirement in 1999.
2006
Col. Eileen Collins, USAF (Ret.)
Portrait by Pat Rawlings/SAIC.
Col. Eileen Marie Collins received the 2006 National Space Trophy as NASA’s first female Space Shuttle Pilot and Commander. Originally from Elmira, New York, Collins earned her associate’s degree in math/science from Corning Community College in 1976, her BA in math and economics from Syracuse University in 1978, an MS in operations research from Stanford in 1986, and a MA in space systems management from Webster University in 1989. Collins was a T-38 instructor pilot at Vance AFB in Oklahoma, and a C-141 commander and instructor at Travis AFB in California. From 1986 to 1989 she taught math at the USAF Academy in Colorado and was a T-41 instructor. She graduated from Air Force Test Pilot School at Edwards AFB in 1990 before her selection that year as a pilot astronaut. Her first flight was the first for a woman pilot. STS-63 in February 1995 performed a first rendezvous with the Russian Space Station Mir. She was pilot on STS-84 that docked with Mir in May 1997. Her third flight was STS-93, the first American space mission ever commanded by a woman. STS-93 deployed the Chandra X-ray Observatory. Collins commanded the Return-to-Flight STS-114 mission that docked to the International Space Station in July 2005, the first flight since the Columbia accident in 2003. Collins left NASA in 2006 with over 872 hours spent in space during her four missions.
2007 Eugene F. "Gene" Kranz
Portrait by Pat Rawlings/SAIC.
Eugene F. “Gene” Kranz, former Director of Mission Operations for NASA and famed Flight Director of Apollo 13 was the winner of the 2007 National Space Trophy. Kranz was born in Toledo, Ohio. He received his BS in Aeronautical Engineering from Parks College of Saint Louis University in 1954. He was commissioned in the U.S. Air Force in 1954, and flew high-performance aircraft. After serving in Korea, he was a flight test engineer at Holloman AFB in New Mexico for McDonnell Aircraft. Kranz joined the Space Task Group at Langley Virginia in 1960 as Assistant Flight Director for Project Mercury. He served as Flight Director for all Gemini missions and many Apollo missions, including the Apollo 11 lunar landing and the successful return of the Apollo 13 crew. He was both a Flight Director and Flight Operations Director for the Skylab program. As Deputy Director of Flight Operations, and then Director of Mission Operations (starting in 1983), he was responsible for all aspects of mission design, testing, planning, training and spaceflight operations, with oversight of over 6000 employees and an annual budget of approximately $750 million. Kranz retired from NASA in March 1994. His best-selling book, Failure is Not an Option, was published in 2000. He is a popular motivational speaker to professional, military, civic and youth groups. See 2007 winner for a longer profile.
2008 Capt. Eugene Cernan, USN (Ret.)
Portrait by Pat Rawlings/SAIC.
See 2008 winner for a profile.
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