Not every flight director is a legend, but some are. Take Eugene Kranz, for example. His heroic efforts saved the Apollo 13 mission from disaster. He also was an aerospace engineer, fighter pilot in the Korean War, and as Chief Flight Director, he directed missions from the Gemini and Apollo programs, including the first lunar landing mission, Apollo 11.
He was also known for his white vests, all hand made by his wife Marta. One of those vests is now hanging in the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum.
Flight directors, like Kranz, are responsible for leading teams of flight controllers, research and engineering experts, and support personnel around the world, and making the real-time decisions critical to keeping NASA astronauts safe in space.
Currently, NASA is looking for leaders for one of the best jobs on Earth for human spaceflight – including missions to the Moon – the position of flight director in mission control at the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. Today is the deadline for applications. Apply today!
Those chosen as NASA flight directors will lead human spaceflight missions to the International Space Station, as American astronauts once again are launching on American rockets and spacecraft from American soil to the orbiting laboratory.